The Nationalist Party said this afternoon said it was concerned over criticism of the National Statistics Office made by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.

In a statement over the signature of former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, the PN noted criticism of the NSO by Prof Scicluna at a meeting of the MCESD yesterday.

It said it appeared that Prof Scicluna expected the NSO to only publish the data which suited him instead of reflecting economic realities, such as growing unemployment and inflation.

During a visit to the offices of the NSO, the minister had also cast doubts on the credibility of the NSO when he criticised the way it compiled data relating to the gross domestic product, the PN said.

Such attacks on the NSO were dangerous because they could undermine the country’s credibility, the PN warned.

The party made no reference to this morning’s statement by the minister, where he said he was requesting an investigation into how the NSO – as it had admitted – made a mistake in the calculation of GDP figures for the second quarter of this year – see http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131022/local/investigation-requested-after-nso-error-in-gdp-calculation.491423#.UmaCDxCBZOQ