Hellenic Statistical Authority

Hellenic Statistical Authority
Ελληνική Στατιστική Αρχή
Agency overview
Formed 22 July 2010 (2010-07-22)
Superseding agency
Type Autonomous authority
Headquarters Piraeus, Greece
Employees 791 (2013)[1]
Annual budget 29.3 m Euro (2013)
Agency executive
  • Andreas V. Georgiou, President
Website statistics.gr

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (Greek: Ελληνική Στατιστική Αρχή, IPA: [eliniˈci statistiˈci arˈçi]), known by its acronym ELSTAT (Greek: ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ), is the national statistical service of Greece.

ELSTAT Data: Unemployment in Greece since 2004

Mission

The Hellenic Statistical Authority collects data which concern population, employment and unemployment, tourism and the economy, industry, as well as data concerning health and social insurance, education and others.[2] The Hellenic Statistical System (ELSS) comprises agencies that have the responsibility or obligation to collect statistical data. The role of ELSTAT in the ELSS is determining as, according to Law 3832/2010, it coordinates all the activities of the other ELSS agencies that concern the development, production and dissemination of the states’s official statistics and forwards these statistics to Eurostat.

Operational Independence

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) is an independent Authority enjoying operational independence, as well as administrative and financial autonomy. It is not subject to the control of governmental bodies or other administrative authority. Its operation is subject to the control of the Hellenic Parliament and governed by the provisions of the Law 3832/2010 «Hellenic Statistical System Establishment of the Hellenic Statistical Authority as an independent Authority», as amended by article 90, paragraphs 8 and 9 of Law 3842/2010 «Restitution of tax justice, treatment of tax evasion and other provisions», by article 10 of Law 3899/2010 «Urgent measures for the implementation of the assistance program of the Greek economy», by article 22 paragraph 1 of the Law 3965/2011.[3] The primary user of the Hellenic Statistical Authority is the Greek state. However, the data are also used by supranational organizations such as Eurostat and others.[2][4]

History

ELSTAT was founded during the premiership of George Papandreou (PASOK) (Cabinet of George Papandreou). Since then, it has also worked for Cabinet of Lucas Papademos (coalition cabinet, November 2011 until Mai 2012), Cabinet of Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Cabinet of Antonis Samaras (coalition) and Cabinet of Alexis Tsipras (SYRIZA, since January 2015). The program is now 80% subsidized by the European Regional Development Fund.[4] Prior to becoming an independent authority, ELSTAT was involved in a number of scandals involving false statistics regarding the condition of the Greek economy in recent years.[5] Since July 2010, it has been an autonomous legal entity under public law, independent from the Greek government and subject only to the control of the Hellenic Parliament. Prior to July 2010, ELSTAT was a non-autonomous service of the Greek state known as the National Statistical Service of Greece (Greek: Εθνική Στατιστική Υπηρεσία).[4]

Political Indipendente

In 2010, a veteran IMF statistician, Andreas Georgiou was appointed head of ELSTAT. Georgiou, was appointed to restore the credibility of Greek statistics a few months after the country's debt crisis erupted.[6] The then Socialist government revealed the budget deficit had been grossly underestimated.[7] Soon afterwards he announced that the deficit of the Greek budget in 2009 was 15%, not 12% as had previously been claimed.[8] In 2013, an economics crime prosecutor formally slapped felony charges on Georgiou and two other employees of the Greek statistics agency on accusations that they falsified the country's 2009 fiscal data.[9] Independent experts suggested that "the investigation was motivated by a desire to blame the Greek debt crisis on external factors, such as speculators, bankers or austerity imposed by lenders and the IMF. Instead of investigating whether the Greek government understated the deficit before the crisis, they are investigating whether it overstated the deficit after the crisis!"[10] Georgiou resigned 2 August 2015. After completing his 5 year term in 2015, Georgiou said in an interview that he and his team had worked to make the (Greek) statistics office independent, impartial, objective and transparent, sometimes against a series of "unsubstantiated and totally unfounded accusations". He refused to stay in office after his five year term and demanded that a successor was appointed.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

See also

References

External links

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