The contrast, as it claims, between the gradual improvement in Greece’s economic indices and the “tragic situation” of Greek citizens is focus of a report from Athens by the German mass daily Frankfurter Rundschau.
In a dispatch entitled “The state is recovering – the people have defaulted”, the Frankfurt newspaper notes that “… Greece will not need fresh money this summer, as it appears, from European support programs. However, the people owe the public treasury nearly 100 billion euros.”
Frankfurter Rundschau refers to the total arrears to the Greek state owed by taxpayers and legal entities, although the figures includes debts dating back decades and by companies no longer in existence or taxpayers no longer alive.
The paper also reiterates the fact that four million taxpayers in the country of roughly 11 million owe the state money.
“Tax arrears are growing larger and larger … Greeks not only owe the state. Arrears to social security funds … exceed 35 billion euros, and the volume of NPLs has skyrocketed since 2009, from 20 to 102 billion euros.”
