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novembro 15, 2004
Greek pre-euro deficit surpassed EU-limit: minister
Greece's pre-euro public deficit exceeded a eurozone limit at the time the European Union decided to admit Athens to the single currency, the country's Economy and Finance Minister acknowledged.
"It was proven that for no year, from 1999 on, and afterwards, the deficit had not fallen below three percent (of gross domestic product)," Greek Economy and Finance Minister Yiorgos Alogoskoufis told reporters Monday.
Under the Stability and Growth Pact, eurozone members are not supposed to have public deficits of more than three percent of GDP.
Alogoskoufis made the statements a few hours before a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels which will examine Greece's pre-euro financial data of 1997-1999.
Greece's conservative government, which took office in March, acknowledged earlier in the year that the country's public deficit consistently breached the eurozone-prescribed three-percent-limit rule since 2000 -- contrary to figures of its socialist predecessors.
But Alogoskoufis had claimed that the country's 1999 deficit, on the basis of which Greece was allowed to join the euro in 2001, was below the three-percent limit.
Following the Greek government's revision of the country's post-2000 figures, a team by the European Union's statistical agency Eurostat came to Athens on two separate visits in October and November to audit the Greece's financial data from 1997-1999.
The findings are to be presented by European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almuna to a meeting of eurozone members' finance ministers in Brussels later in the day.
According to several Greek press reports Monday, Eurostat found Greece's deficit for the key year 1999 to be at 3.38 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Publicado por esta às novembro 15, 2004 05:45 PM