Greece unblocks funds to help ease energy crisis

Page last updated at 03:17 GMT, Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - 08:17 EST

Reuters:

Over the past two weeks, Greek energy companies have been in a frantic scramble for cash to avert an energy crunch caused by the country's economic crisis and flawed regulation.

The 40 million euros had belonged to two small electricity retailers that went out of business earlier this year and were frozen as part of a judicial investigation into their bankruptcy.

Greece's power regulator RAE had repeatedly urged authorities to unblock these funds to settle the two companies' debt to power grid operator LAGHE, which runs a deficit of more than 350 million euros.

Greek court officials, who had hitherto refused to unblock the funds, relented after LAGHE's deficit caused a financial chain reaction that left power producers and state-run natural gas company DEPA short of cash to pay suppliers.

Read the whole story: Reuters