With another 350 million euros leaving Greece on Friday for a payment due to the International Monetary Fund, the state coffer looks frighteningly empty. At the same time, state revenues have dropped significantly. Greek banks face a serious liquidity problem as on Wednesday alone depositors withdrew a total 300 million euros. At the same time, they only received 400 million euros under the Emergency Liquidity Assistance scheme. The ELA limit is 69.6 billion euros. At the same time, the Greek state withdraws available funds from security funds in order to cover financing needs. A Greek official said in Brussels that Athens has no problem paying the 350-million-euro installment to the IMF. However, by the end of April Athens will need 4.3 billion euros for public employees’ salaries, pensions and other obligations. At the same time banks should renew state bonds worth 2.4 billion euros. Another major problem for the Greek economy is non performing loans. Loan payments have been extremely low since the beginning of the year when Greece was gearing up for snap elections. Debts to the state also increased as taxpayers are uncertain over new tax laws. In the first two months in 2015, there were 57 million euros in bad checks and unpaid bills of exchange. Loan payments dropped by 1.5 billion euros while payments for debts to the state dropped by 1.7 billion euros.
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