Greek debt crisis: Cash-strapped country runs out of money to pay public sector workers

GREECE’s public sector employees and suppliers have not been paid amid further signs the cash-strapped country’s bankruptcy is imminent.

As the country’s need for a bailout loan reaches crisis point, workers and business reliant on government funding have been left in a state of panic and confusion.

“We are now running one month behind on our salaries. Until only recently we were two months behind, and no-one would tell us if and when we would get our next pay cheque,” one employee at an institution funded by the government told the BBC.

Greek records first surplus as EU moves closer to balanced budgets

BRUSSELS – Cash-strapped Greece recorded its first primary budget surplus in a generation last year, according to data released by Eurostat on Wednesday (23 April).

Excluding interest on its debt repayments and a number of one-off measures to prop up its banks, Athens recorded a surplus of €1.5 billion, worth the equivalent of 0.8% of its economic output in 2013. Despite this, Greece still recorded an overall deficit figure of 12.7 percent, up by 4 percent on the previous year as the crisis-hit country endured a sixth straight year of recession.