Households battered by the crisis

The first period of the financial crisis, from 2009 to 2014 or before the imposition of capital controls and the third bailout agreement, witnessed a major contraction of disposable income and food consumption, and sinking bank deposits, according to a study published in the Bank of Greece’s Economic Bulletin.

The study showed that the crisis has had a strongly negative impact on Greek households: In the first five years of the crisis households saw their net wealth shrink by a dramatic 40 percent, deemed particularly large by researchers, from 108,649 euros per household in 2009 to 65,030 in 2014. Poorer households in particular endured a 70.8 percent decline in net wealth.

At the same time, disposable income declined 26 percent (from 23,492 euros to 17,465 euros on average), deposits fell 48.5 percent (from 3,856 euros to 1,987 euros per household) and food consumption at home diminished 29.4 percent, with poorer households cutting down on food by 30.8 percent.

The value of households’ main residence slumped some 34 percent within five years, from 106,340 euros in 2009 to 69,834 euros in 2014, added the report signed by researcher Evangelos Haralambakis.