Bank deposits, loans point to poverty
Greek bank deposits are now only comparable to those of the former Communist countries, as European Central Bank data show that the per capita deposits in domestic lenders came to just 16,796 euros in August.
This ranks Greece just above Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania and behind all other older European Union members.
Worse, European Banking Federation data reveal that the per capita loans of Greeks exceed the per capita deposits. According to 2010 data, every Greek owed banks an average of 22,842 euros, while the average deposit level was at 18,504 euros.
The shrinking of the Greeks? disposable income, that became evident in 2010, is expected to be much more serious in the current year. In 2010 it shrank by over 9 billion euros, dropping to 163.5 billion from 172.6 billion euros in 2009.
