A slight typo in a 2014 debt forecast report released by Spain’s Economy Ministry this week forecast the number a bit higher than is true — by $13.6 billion.
“It is an erratum,” a spokeswoman for the Economy Ministry told Agence France-Presse.
The typo took four days to discover; the fault was with the last two digits. The real report is that Spain in 2014 is projected to decrease public debt from 99.8 percent of its total economic output to 98.9 percent.
But Spain’s Economy Ministry isn’t the only government body to be embarrassed by a financial reporting typo. A few months ago, Prince William County in Northern Virginia lost $5 million of projected revenues after a budget official accidentally used the wrong numbers.
“We need to make sure we fix the problem instead of affixing blame,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart said to The Washington Post at the time. “It’s a lot of money, but it’s not insurmountable.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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