{"id":125745,"date":"2015-06-17T13:11:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=125745"},"modified":"2015-06-17T13:11:38","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:11:38","slug":"greeks-stashing-e10000-bundles-in-their-homes-in-fear-of-grexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=125745","title":{"rendered":"Greeks stashing \u20ac10,000 bundles in their homes in fear of Grexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEverybody\u2019s doing it,\u201d said Joanna Christofosaki, in front of a Eurobank cash dispenser in the leafy Athens neighbourhood of Kolonaki. \u201cOur friends have all done it. Nobody wants their money to be worthless tomorrow. Nobody wants to be unable to get at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A researcher in the archaeology department at the Academy of Athens, Christofosaki said she knew plenty of people who had \u201c\u20ac10,000 somewhere at home\u201d and plenty of others who chose to keep their stash at the office. Was she among them? \u201cIf I was, I certainly wouldn\u2019t tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not too hard, in central Athens\u2019 plushest district on Tuesday, to find people worried that the latest breakdown of talks between Greece and its creditors over a new aid-for-reforms deal may have implications for the security \u2013 and accessibility \u2013 of their savings.<\/p>\n

With time fast running out to secure a desperately needed \u20ac7.2bn in new rescue funds before the end of the month, when Athens is due to repay \u20ac1.5bn in loans to the International Monetary Fund, anxious Greeks have begun withdrawing money from their country\u2019s banks at an unprecedented rate.<\/p>\n

Bank deposits have been falling steadily since October and now stand at their lowest level since 2004. Withdrawals in recent weeks have averaged \u20ac200-250m a day, but on Monday \u2013 after the shock collapse of last-ditch talks between the Greek government and its eurozone and international lenders \u2013 withdrawals surged to \u20ac400m.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are very concerned,\u201d said the owner of a small company who asked not to be named. \u201cI think those who could, have already transferred some money abroad. And lots of others have taken out a few thousand, enough to see them through any immediate crisis. I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofia, who runs a boutique in one of Athens\u2019 wealthier suburbs, said she and her husband had \u20ac15,000 in a safe in the garage, \u201cjust to be sure we\u2019re not caught out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, an anonymous car concessionaire confessed to \u201cgetting into gold a little bit. Not much. But it\u2019s safe, isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nikos Grigoriou, who runs a software consultancy, said the possible introduction of capital controls \u2013 as happened two years ago in Cyprus \u2013 was the big worry now. \u201cIf they fail to reach a deal and Greece defaults, there\u2019ll be a lot of panic. Anything could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governments use capital controls to stop banks haemorrhaging deposits and to avert insolvency. They can involve setting ceilings on foreign transfers, taxing particular kinds of withdrawal, performing physical checks at borders \u2013 but also limiting cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In Cyprus that limit was set at \u20ac300 a day, but many observers believe Greece might well need to set a considerably lower daily limit. \u201cWhat\u2019s that going to be like \u2013 no one allowed to take out more than, I don\u2019t know, \u20ac100 a day?\u201d asked Christos Ekonomou, a hairdresser.<\/p>\n

As Greece\u2019s choice comes ever more sharply into focus \u2013 between opting to stay in the eurozone and experiencing yet more austerity, or defaulting on its repayments and possibly returning to the drachma \u2013 some economists have also suggested, as an interim measure, a halfway house parallel currency that would involve government IOU notes and tax credit certificates.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, for every wealthy Kolonaki resident fretting about their cash, there was a less well-off state or company employee convinced it would not come to that. \u201cI\u2019m worried, sure, for my job, my kids, my future. But not about my money at the bank, said Nancy Parlakidi outside the Alpha Bank on Stadiou Street. \u201cThat\u2019s the least of my worries right now. The bank\u2019s the safest place for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Withdrawing a couple of \u20ac10 notes from the Piraeus Bank near Syntagma Square (\u201cbut only so I can go shopping\u201d) Georgios Votskaris, a junior office worker, suggested that \u201colder people and richer people are withdrawing money because they\u2019re frightened.<\/p>\n

\"Alexis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I\u2019m not frightened, I think there\u2019s going to be a deal. But mainly I don\u2019t really have any money to take out. I\u2019m 33 years old; what kind of savings do you think I could have built up over the past five years?\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Eurobank on Voukourestiou Street, Dimitrios Barpakis, a 40-year-old software engineer, said much the same. \u201cI have no money to speak of that I could actually get worried about. I\u2019ve lost a lot of money during this crisis; I\u2019ve had to spend my savings, not put them under the bed. And I think there\u2019ll be a last-minute deal. It\u2019s in no one\u2019s interest for there not to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be bad and it\u2019s going to be hard, whatever happens. No one\u2019s kidding themselves about that,\u201d said Kristina Vongas, a lawyer. But despite deep concerns about the their country\u2019s economic future, few Greeks see any benefits to be had from leaving the eurozone.<\/p>\n

A recent opinion poll for the news website Newsit showed as many as 74% of Greeks back the euro \u2013 with fully 50% saying they would be prepared to accept \u201cmajor concessions\u201d by the country\u2019s Syriza-led government if it would help break the deadlock with bailout lenders. \u201cWe have to stay in,\u201d said Votskaris. \u201cIf we leave, things will only get far, far worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barpakis concurred: \u201cWe should definitely stay in \u2013 as long as the eurozone is prepared to be what it really should be, which is to say a genuine union whose members help, not punish, each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christofosaki, though, while also convinced Greece\u2019s future had to be inside the eurozone, was less sure how things would pan out. \u201cThe big problem in this country is a mental one,\u201d she said. Even if we do get concessions and there is a deal, a majority of people don\u2019t really want to reform. Greeks are a recalcitrant lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEverybody\u2019s doing it,\u201d said Joanna Christofosaki, in front of a Eurobank cash dispenser in the leafy Athens neighbourhood of Kolonaki. \u201cOur friends have all done it. Nobody wants their money to be worthless tomorrow. Nobody wants to be unable to get at it.\u201d A researcher in the archaeology department at the Academy of Athens, Christofosaki […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":125746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-125745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}