State General Accounting Office

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Greece?s social security funds are experiencing a dramatic decline in revenues, partly due to the drop in state funding, according to data from the State General Accounting Office released on Monday.

The government has submitted an amendment to immigration-related legislation currently being debated in Parliament that would allow it to bypass for the rest of this year the tender process for schemes aimed at providing housing and food for migrants, as well as repatriation programs.

The Greek state's debts to private parties rose to 3.25 billion euros in February compared with 3.1 billion in January, data published by the State General Accounting Office on Tuesday have shown.

However, tax returns dropped by 20 million euros to 628 million in February.

Technocrats from Greece?s lenders are expected in Athens on Thursday for talks with government officials, a day after technical discussions about the country?s reform program began in Brussels, where a different set of experts representing creditors met with Greek officials.

Just a day after securing the Eurogroup’s approval for a precautionary credit line to exit the Greek bailout at the end of the year, the government has encountered a new problem with the troika, which has taken exception to a new law increasing the number of installments in which taxpayers can pay off their debts to the state.

 Primary surplus goal for 2015 will not be as low as reported, according to Finance Ministry official

The head of Greece’s statistical service and the Finance Ministry traded accusations on Thursday about who was to blame for Greece being behind schedule in supplying the European Commission with detailed figures regarding its public finances dating back to 1995.

A meeting is expected to take place between representative of the government, armed forces and emergency services at the State General Accounting Office on Tuesday to decide on how soldiers’ and policemen’s wages will be restored.

By Sotiris Nikas & Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

The general government primary budget surplus in the first quarter of the year amounted to 2.5 billion euros, according to data released on Wednesday by the Finance Ministry. That is three times the size of the primary surplus a year earlier, which had come to 770 million euros.

By Prokopis Htazinikolaou

As of Thursday, those hardest hit by the financial crisis will be able to submit applications for collecting their share of the social dividend – i.e. the government handouts stemming from the primary surplus of 2013.