Finance

Finance

Greeceâ€™s statistics chief faces criminal probe

28 November 2011 14:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. The head of Elstat, Greeceâ€™s new independent statistics agency, faces an official criminal investigation for allegedly inflating the scale of the countryâ€™s fiscal crisis and acting against the Greek national interest, APA reports citing Financial Times.

Andreas Georgiou, who worked at the International Monetary Fund for 20 years, was appointed in 2010 by agreement with the fund and the European Commission to clean up Greek statistics after years of official fudging by the finance ministry. The accusations against him, which are likely to shock European Union officials, come as eurozone finance ministers prepare to decide on Tuesday whether to release a delayed â‚¬8bn ($10.6bn) loan tranche to Athens, needed to pay public sector salaries and pensions next month. Over the past 18 months rows about the size of the Greek deficit have strained relations between Greeceâ€™s finance ministry and its international creditors.

Mr Georgiou is due to appear before Greeceâ€™s prosecutor for financial crime on December 12 to answer the charges. If convicted of â€œbetraying the countryâ€™s interestsâ€, he could face life imprisonment. The investigation follows a public dispute over the 2009 budget deficit figure. Under Mr Georgiou, the figure was revised upwards from 13.4 per cent to 15.8 per cent of gross domestic product â€“ a record for a eurozone member state. The revised figure was accepted without reservation by Eurostat, the Brussels statistical service.