Payment arrears, or even defaults, are largely irrelevant in the sense that they are essentially transactions among enterprises owned by the same entity, that is, the state.
In particular, the fiscal deficit was slashed from 6.6% in 2014 to 1.4% of GDP in 2016, bringing down the share of public debt in GDP. This helped achieve the three-year objectives of the fiscal consolidation programme, a year earlier than planned.