No comments

The disagreement between the finance ministry and the Central Statistics Office over the estimated economic growth in the current fiscal year has had a fallout among independent economists too. A senior economist who is often happy to comment, on the record, on the country’s economic developments, whether they are positive or negative, suddenly turned cautious about the arguments over the half-a-percentage point differential in the full-year GDP estimates. “Don’t quote me this time,” he told reporters. Asked why he had suddenly turned reticent, he said his friends in government had indicated to him that “higher-ups” were not very happy about the economist community speaking frankly about the issue.