Athens attempted to gloss over Monday’s decision by the Eurogroup to sign-off on the release of only 1.1 billion euros of a 2.8-billion-euro sub-tranche in bailout loans left over from the first review of the Greek program last spring.
Speaking from Brussels, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos attributed the decision to break up the disbursement into two installments to “technical reasons”.
The reason given by the Eurogroup, in its communique, was to allow creditors the opportunity to confirm that the Greek government has previously proceeded with a clearance of net arrears, practically all owed to the private sector.
As of Monday, data for the previous month, September, had not been examined.
Tsakalotos estimated that the remaining 1.7 billion euros will be disbursed on Oct. 24.
