Greece’s 2009 Budget Gap Hits 15.4% Of GDP, Eurostat Says

Greece’s 2009 budget deficit hit 15.4 of GDP, revised data provided Monday by Eurostat showed.
The previous notification was at 13.6% of GDP
The country’s government debt for the same year reached 126.8% of GDP, versus a previous estimate of 115,1%.
Eurostat said it is lifting the reservation on Greek data it previously expressed as all of the issues identified in the last reservation have been addressed during a series of methodological visits.
The country’s budget deficit for 2006, 2007 and 2008 is also revised at 5.7%, 6.4% and 9.4%. It was previously set at 3.6%, 5.1% and 7.7% respectively.
“The revision and validation of the fiscal data up to 2009 is a major step to restore transparency in fiscal management and to eliminate controversies over the quality and the accuracy of Greek fiscal statistics,” the Finance Ministry said in an announcement.
“Despite the data revision, the deficit reduction in 2010 is larger than initially targeted; 6 percentage points of GDP against a targeted reduction of 5,5 percentage points. The 2010 deficit resulting from the new revised figures and general government accounts after the reclassification is estimated to be 9,4% of GDP, a reduction in excess of 14 billion Euro compared to 2009,” it added.