Hellenic Statistical Authority

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) will pick up the bill for any legal and court costs incurred by its former officials, a provision of a draft bill submitted to Parliament Thursday stipulates.

According to the would-be legislation, the costs will be added to ELSTAT's budget and the statistics service would only avoid paying them if the former official is convicted.

Supreme Court Prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou on Wednesday ordered the reopening of a case against the former head of Greece's statistical service, Andreas Georgiou, after a Council of Appeals Court judges ruled for a second time that he should not face charges.

Responding to a question submitted by MEP Nikos Chountis in the European Parliament, the President of the European Central bank (ECB), Mario Draghi painted a bleak picture of the Greek job market. According to Mr. Draghi, the real underutilisation of the Greek workforce had reached 31.3% in the 4th quarter of 2016.

The European Stability Mechanism's decision regarding the disbursement of the 7.7-billion-euro tranche to Greece was on Wednesday postponed until Friday, provided that all prior actions required have been satisfied by then.

Poverty data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) illustrate the timeless significance of pensions when it comes to containing poverty risk in Greece, and the protection of sorts they provide for pensioners when compared with other social groups such as the unemployed or women.

Greek retail sales by volume fell 1.0 percent in March compared to the same month a year ago after an upwardly revised 9.9 percent increase in February, statistics service ELSTAT said on Wednesday.

Retail sales were led lower by foods, beverage, tobacco, lubricants, fuels, department stores and supermarkets, the data showed.

A council of appeals court judges Friday ruled against the indictment of the former head of Greece's statistics agency ELSTAT, Andreas Georgiou, who has been accused of artificially inflating the size of Greece's budget deficit in 2009.

The average growth rate in Eurozone countries stood at 1.7% in the first quarter of 2017, according to Eurostat’s initial estimates, while it was calculated at 2% for the EU28 area. This is in contract to the Greek economy, which was the only country that registered a drop in growth for the sam3e period.

Greek economy has paid a heavy price for the delay in the completion of the second review of the country's third bailout and this is reflected in the official data for first-quarter gross domestic product, which contracted 0.5 percent year-on-year according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

The Greek economy has contracted by half a percentage point (0.5%) in the first quarter of 2017, according to the official data released by Greek Statistical Services (ELSTAT). Prolonged uncertainty regarding the outcome of the second review of the Greek bailout program meant the economy continued its downward trend in the new year, falling by 0.1% compared to the last quarter of 2016.