On Tue, 5 Jan 2016, cociuba mihai wrote:

> "Can you reproduce the issue with a smaller dataset (fewer rows/columns)?"
>
> I've tried with a smaller dataset and everything seems to be ok.

Running your script from a copy of gretl invoked from the shell shows the 
following output on stderr:

<stderr>
Excel 97 +
Got BIFF_1904: value 0
Found 1 sheet
0: 'Sheet1' at offset 15922
Reading file...
CODEPAGE: got 1200
reading worksheet at 15922
rows=2053, total cols=235, data cols=235
check for label strings in first imported column: not found
newset->v = 231, newset->n = 2052
'TotalCustomerDepositsmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'DepositsfromBanksmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'DerivativesmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'TradingLiabilitiesmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'PrefSharesandHybridCapital' duplicated variable name
'LessReservesforImpairedLoa' duplicated variable name
'GrossLoansmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'LoansandAdvancestoBanksmil' duplicated variable name
'OtherSecuritiesmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'OtherEarningAssetsmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'TotalEarningAssetsmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'FixedAssetsmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'TotalAssetsmilEUR' duplicated variable name
'EquityTotalAssets' duplicated variable name
'DepositsShorttermfundingm' duplicated variable name
'EquitymilEUR' duplicated variable name
'NetIncomemilEUR' duplicated variable name
'TotalCapitalRatio' duplicated variable name
'NetInterestMargin' duplicated variable name
'LiquidAssetsDepSTFundin' duplicated variable name
'bigstr' duplicated variable name
'LoansAdvancestoCustomers' duplicated variable name
'PreimpairmentOpProfitAve' duplicated variable name
'FitchComprehensiveIncomeAv' duplicated variable name
</stderr>

What happens if you simplify/streamline/sanitize the column names in your 
xls file?

-------------------------------------------------------
   Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
   Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali (DiSES)

   Università Politecnica delle Marche
   (formerly known as Università di Ancona)

   r.lucchetti@univpm.it
   http://www2.econ.univpm.it/servizi/hpp/lucchetti
-------------------------------------------------------