Four in ten Greek households have at least one unemployed member, one in three fears to lose its home, one in ten had to sell assets in order to pay obligations, one in three cannot pay utility bills and mortgage installments. The list of so-called “Greece’s success story” is long and has been fully captured by the latest survey conducted by the Greek Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants (GSEVEE)
For example that 94.6 % of households have suffered income decrease since 2010. GSEVEE estimates the income decrease at 40%.
40% of the households (1.4 million households) have at least one jobless member. From this 40%, only 9.8% receive unemployment allowance. That is that 200,000 people receive the allowance for a period of one year, while one million people are financial unprotected.
One in three households are on the verge of delaying payments to utility companies, to state, banks, loan repayments etc. 34.8 delay the payments in order to be able to survive, 41.7% said they had not enough income to meet their obligations.
94.6% of the households has suffered income decreases during the economic crisis (2010-2013). The overwhelming majority of households in the annual income category 10,000-25,000 euro have suffered the income decreases. In comparison to previous year (2012), 82.4% said, that they suffered decreases also during 2013.
The average income decrease reaches 40% (39.47%) according to GSEVEE estimations. the prefecture with the biggest income decrease is Attica with 41.06%.
Major income source for the economic support of the households are pensions (48.6%). Income from salaries, payments for free lance jobs, self-employment and business activities has decreased: 35.9% of the households live on salaries, 10.3% on income from business revenues.
41.7% of the households considers that it won’t be able to meet the economic obligations of the coming year (2014). The rate increases at 51% in households with at least one unemployed member.
75.5% wait for the sales period to make purchases (70% in 2012).
63.7% has made cuts in the food expenditure, 90.3% limited expenditure for clothing and shoes, and 90% has limited dining out, movies, bar etc.
36% buys products of lower quality due to cheap prices.
More than 75% has made cuts in expenditure for heating.
86.7% of the Greek population has a property, while 28.1% has a mortgage. That is around one million households have loans,
One in three households is afraid it will be obliged to lose its property due to loans to the banks and the state [note: the finance ministry threatens to confiscate properties, if the taxpayers do not meet their obligations].
55.8% say that they have confidence in the public hospitals when it comes to the treatment of a serious problem.
The survey was conducted by MARC in December 2013 among 1,2001 households across the country.
Aim of the survey was to record the impact of the economic crisis on income, household spending, the demand, the attitude towards the quality of living, taxation and other financial obligations.
Full survey results in Greek in GSEVEE here.
PS I suppose, the Greek households are in economic suffocation due to the famous success story. Or not….
