Concern grows as payments to state suppliers move slowly

It is not at all certain Greece will collect the outstanding subtranche of 800 million euros from the second bailout review next month, as the progress on the repayment of state debts to third parties, which that the subtranche disbursement depends on, has been particularly slow.

Bank of Greece data show that in July and August Athens paid out only 415 million euros of a total 1.2 billion euros it has to disburse to suppliers and taxpayers to receive the bailout money by the end of next month.

Concern is growing at the State General Accounting Office, with sources saying that the Finance Ministry has credited state entities with 760-770 million euros but only a small part of that has reached its recipients. It is this element that the Eurogroup will examine before authorizing the disbursement of the subtranche that is available by end-October.