Latest study unveils dire sitution: 7 out of 10 Greek households report less income in 2016

By F. Zois

Greece's economic meltdown continues to exert a massive impact on the country's society, with 67.7 percent of young adults queried in a recent study declaring that they want to emigrate overseas for better job prospects, whereas monthly pensions remain the main source of income for 50 percent of the Greek public.

The shocking results were released on the two-year anniversary of the assumption of power by the formerly anti-bailout, anti-memorandum leftist SYRIZA party, which formed a government -- twice -- with a small rightist-populist party.

The report, commission and published by the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants (GSEVEE), also adds that some 800,000 citizens remain under the threshold of poverty and social exclusion -- based on first-world EU criteria -- in the country.

The GSEVEE study shows that seven out of 10 households in the crisis-battered country reported a reduction in income in 2016; four out of 10 heads of households expressed concern that they will continue to lose assets due to their inability to "make ends meet"; 34 percent of respondents said they will not pay income taxes in 2017.  

"The violent fiscal adjustment has brought society to its limits," GSEVEE president Giorgos Kavvathas said, in presenting the study. He also warned that beyond the ongoing rise of poverty, social inequality is also increasing.

Amid the completion of a second year in power of the leftist-rightist coalition government, 75 percent of households reported worse living conditions (quantitative, qualitative) in relation to the first years of the economic crisis.

The study was conducted by GSEVEE's research arm in cooperation with Athens-based Marc on a sample of 1,000 households around the country in mid November 2016.

Other highlights of the study include:

• More than 37 percent of households declared that they subsist on a family income in the lowest economic bracket.
• More than half of responding households said at least one unemployed person was in the household.
• 16 percent of households declared that the family income is not sufficient to cover even basic expenses, a result related to the poverty level.

According to Eurostat figures, the relevant poverty threshold (for Greece) was reduced from 7,179 euros in 2010 to 4,514 euros in 2015, an indication of the collapse of medium incomes.