Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-09-22

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Economic crisis shrank Greek citizens' assets

[01] Economic crisis shrank Greek citizens' assets

"The crisis left lasting scars in Greece, in particular: whereas around half of the Greek population were members of the euro middle wealth class when the euro was launched, the figure today stands at only 20%," the report said.

The average net financial assets of Greeks -representing the difference between assets (bank deposits, securities and holdings in insurance programs) and their debt, totaled 11,231 euros in 2015, significantly lower compared with other Eurozone states with the exception of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia.

Bank deposits dominate the asset portfolios of households in Greece (64.1%), Portugal (44.9%) and Spain (42.2%), a feature that is not only due to a conscious investment decision, as these shares were much lower before the outbreak of the financial crisis (52.3% in Greece, 38.6% in Portugal and 37.9% in Spain).

The financial asset statistics of Greek households are still in negative territory. While securities assets bounced back after the pronounced slump in the previous year (+5.0%), bank deposits fell by 8.1% for what is now the sixth year running. People in Greece had already started pulling their savings out of their accounts back in 2010, either sending their money abroad, or – as is currently the case – stashing it under their mattresses. According to figures released by the Greek central bank, households pulled a total of almost EUR 33bn out of banks in 2015 alone. Since January 2010, a total of more than EUR 97bn or an average of EUR 8,860 per capita has been diverted from the country's banks. During this period, bank deposits dropped by almost half. According to official statistics, total Greek financial assets at the end of 2015 were down by almost 30% on the pre-crisis high. In all other western European countries, households were better placed than they were back in 2007.

Nowhere in Western Europe was average per capita debt as low as in Greece (EUR 10,630), although debt levels skyrocketed during the boom years leading up to the outbreak of the global economic and financial crisis, the report said.

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