During these years of economic crisis, Greeks are hiding their money under the mattress instead of keeping it in the bank, says a Bloomberg report.
In the months following the announcement of snap elections, Greek banks have lost billions in deposits. The Bloomberg report says that the funds “missing” are not transferred to other banks but are most likely hidden under mattresses or under bathroom tiles.
Data provided by the Bank of Greece indicate that the money withdrawn have been transferred to other accounts. The data is based on estimating banknotes in circulation, the amount of which do not show a significant rise.
But according to Bloomberg, the “banknotes in circulation” only show “the amount of cash Greece has been allocated under its share of overall euro-area banknote circulation. Any extra cash needs of the Greek economy are accounted for elsewhere on the Bank of Greece balance sheet under the rather drab headline of “net liabilities related to the allocation of euro banknotes within the Eurosystem.”
However, balance sheets show this extra cash was zero before the crisis hit in 2009 and rose to 22 billion euros shortly before the 2012 political crisis that led to the second bailout. They started falling steadily, until December 2014 when the new political crisis culminated in snap elections and the leftist SYRIZA government came into power. This extra cash started rising significantly again.
Using graphs of extra cash and banknotes in circulation in Greece, the report concludes that in the three months until the end of February 2015 there is a 10 billion euro increase in total cash. Therefore they can be found under the mattresses of Greek households.
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