GREECE: Capital flight continues, owes Target debt of €91 bln

The Eurosystem’s central banks are continuing to finance capital flight from Greece via the Target payment system, the Ifo Institute reported citing the latest figures released by Athens.

In February, the Greek central bank took out a further 15 bln euros in overdraft credit from other central banks to enable it to make foreign transfers. In January, this figure was as high as 27 bln euros. This means that Greek central bank now owes a total of 91 bln euros in Target debts to other central banks in the Eurosystem.
In addition, Greece has also been granted credit worth 13 bln euros in the form of its disproportionate issue of bank notes.
“This shows how urgently controls on capital flows are needed in Greece so that the Eurosystem does not have to grant it even more credit to compensate for capital flight,” said Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn.
Greece’s total debt to the Eurosystem and the bail-out funds now amounts to 324 bln euros, or 181% of its GDP. For Germany alone the exposure increased to 86 bln euros, the Ifo report said.