Greece Charges Statisticians Over Size of Deficit

Greece has brought criminal charges against the official responsible for measuring the country's debt, thereby calling into question the validity of its 172 billion euros second bailout by the EU and International Monetary Fund. Andreas Georgiou, head of the independent statistical agency Elstat, and two senior officials are accused of undermining the country's "national interests" by inflating the 2009 budget deficit figure used as the benchmark for successive austerity packages. The three statistical experts face criminal charges of making false statements and corrupt practices, a judicial official said, adding that if found guilty they could serve prison terms of five to 10 years. They have denied any wrongdoing. Mr Georgiou denied Greek media reports that he had resigned from Elstat, but he declined to comment on the charges. The move by Greece's top financial prosecutors follows a 15-month investigation of allegations by Zoe Georganta, a Greek statistics professor, that Mr Georgiou's team used inaccurate methods to increase the size of the 2009 deficit from 12 percent to 15.8 percent of national output, a record for a euro zone member state. Prof Georganta made the allegations against Mr Georgiou after she was sacked from the board of Elstat by Evangelos Venizelos, then finance minister. The upwardly revised deficit figure was accepted by Eurostat, the Brussels statistical service, without reservation. Elstat has since revised figures for the 2010 and 2011 budget deficits used to work out Greece's aid requirement for its current bailout and the sustainability of its debt. "If these figures are not considered accurate the whole basis for the provision of aid to Greece is not valid," said one analyst who asked not to be named.