Greek Statistics

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There are lies, damned lies, and Greek statistics, to paraphrase an old saying. Greece's Socialist government shocked the world late last year when it suggested the country's budget deficit for 2009 would be 12.7% of national income, three times the proportion originally forecast. This ugly picture of Greece's public finances broke the rules of the Eurozone, and stirred up market turbulence which has threatened to destabilise the euro. And it brought widespread condemnation of Greece's statistical service. In January, a report on Greek figures from the European Commission spoke of 'severe irregularities' and 'incorrect data.' So was there a cover-up of Greece's ballooning deficit? Lesley Curwen talks to the man who used to be Secretary General of the Greek National Statistical Office until he resigned last year. He is former US maths professor, Dr Emanuel Kontopirakis, who was appointed to the job by the Conservative government back in 2004. He says he had nothing to do with the wildly inaccurate deficit forecast. Plus, the BBC's Delnaaz Irani reports on the rise of football in India. And our regular commentator Lucy Kellaway suggests there's been a resurgence in managerial madness.