Greek Ministry of Finance announced that general government deficit, according to cash data, stood at €982m in 3M ’13 from €4,662m in 3M ‘12, down 78.9% y-o-y, with primary surplus at €967m down 59.4% y-o-y, incorporating:

· state budget (i.e. central government) deficit of €2,638m (3M ’12: €6,197m) and primary deficit of €764m (3M’12: surplus of €7499m).

· extrabudgetary funds’ (i.e. legal entities) surplus of €79m (3M ’12: €182m).

· local governments’ surplus of €482m (3M ’12: €373m).

· social security funds’ surplus of €1,095m (3M ’12: €979m).

it is also noteworthy that general government arrears (>90days), incl. tax refunds, dropped 8.0% m-o-m to €8,148m at the end of March (end-Feb: €8,861m), with state budget arrears at €523m (6.4% of total), local authorities’ at €1,039m (12.8%), hospitals’ at €1,902m (23.3%), social security funds’ at €4,098m (50.3%), extrabudgetary funds at €341m (4.2%) and tax refunds at €245m (3.0%).

EWG approved March tranche of €2.8bn

Euro Working Grooup approved  the March tranche of €2.8bn paving the way for the approval of the next tranche of €6bn by the Eurogroup on May 13. A positive – yet expected – development, following the completion of the required prior actions and the vote of the omnibus bill by the parliament on Sunday.

Greek economic sentiment improved in April

According to European Commission (EC), Greek economic sentiment improved for third consecutive month by 1.1 points to 89.2 in April from 88.1 in March, reaching its highest level over (at least) the past 12 months.