Greek Deficit-Data Revisions to Be Delayed to Nov. 15, EU Says
October 20, 2010, 8:22 AM EDT
By Jones Hayden
Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A revision of Greek budget-deficit figures for 2006-2009 will be delayed until Nov. 15 as the European Union’s statistics office performs a quality assessment of the data, the EU said.
“The figures for Greece will be published by mid- November,” Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, said today in an e- mailed statement. The statistics office, Eurostat, is “undertaking a process of quality assessment of statistical source data from public accounts, in cooperation with the Greek Statistical Office and the Greek Court of Auditors.”
Eurostat was scheduled to publish revisions to Greece’s debt and deficit figures on Oct. 22 in a report on all 27 EU countries. The EU said on Oct. 6 that its estimates for Greece’s deficit and debt would be revised higher for the years 2006-2009, without specifying the size of the adjustments.
Officials from Luxembourg-based Eurostat have found “certain entities which have to be re-classified as public entities, which will have a certain impact upward on the debt and deficit,” Rehn said two days ago. The Greek government may have to step up its budget-cutting efforts to meet its 2011 deficit target after the revisions, he said.
Altafaj said the modified Greek figures will be published on Nov. 15, which he called “the ultimate deadline” for the data before Greece’s 2011 draft budget and a review linked to the next disbursement of aid from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
‘Unprecedented Effort’
“The aim of this unprecedented effort is to complete the audit mission before publishing the figures and therefore get the figures right,” said Altafaj, noting that Eurostat is exercising new audit powers for the first time.
Eurostat officials weren’t available to comment
The EU estimates Greece’s 2009 deficit at 13.6 percent of gross domestic product, the highest in the EU after Ireland, and projects a shortfall this year of 7.8 percent of GDP. In January, EU officials cited “severe irregularities” in Greece’s data.
***
Probabilmente si cerca di non interferire troppo con le elezioni locali, previste agli inizi di novembre.