Official Economic Figures Inaccurate

The Syrian state-run newspaper Al-Thawra criticised recent national economic figures issued by official Syrian bodies, calling the numbers inaccurate and contradictory and saying they gave international organisations reason to draw a negative image of Syria.



In an August 12 editorial, the daily’s editor in chief, Asaad Aboud, said that numbers in Syria, as in other countries, were politicised.



He said that many state institutions deliberately falsified figure in order to enhance their record of achievements. Conflicts of interest between various bodies led to many contradictions between different sets of data, he said.



Aboud blamed Syrian officials for hiding real figures from international bodies like the World Bank and Arab and international development agencies, urging the government to produce correct data on areas including corruption.