The Greek state’s arrears to the private sector reached 5.435 billion euros by the end of July, an increase of 342 million euros from the total at the end of June 2017 and up by 682 million over the first seven months of the year.
The spike in arrears came despite the state covering outstanding debt worth 306 million euros in July. The total outlay over seven-month period to cover arrears was 1.105 billion euros, most of which was the product of the disbursement of a multi-billion euro loan tranche by creditors over the summer.
According to figures supplied by the General Accounting Office, ministries and other public sector entities, such as local governments, state hospitals, pension funds etc., recorded total arrears of 3.527 billion euros by end of 2016 to the private sector.
