The IMF this week points to businesses and households in Greece trying to keep to stay "above water" in terms of tax and debt obligations, along with the now oft-repeated problem of tens of billions in "bad debt" burdening systemic banks' balance sheets.
The IMF, quoting figures by the CEIC regarding global debt figures, said households' debt in Greece now reach 129.3 billion USD in June 2018. Nevertheless, the figure was less than in the previous quarter, when debts by households reached 132.9 billion USD.
The record of 220.5 billion USD came seven years earlier, in June 2011, whereas as a percentage of GDP, the highest point was 75.6 percent in December 2012. Thankfully, the latter figure is now below 65 percent of GDP, while if debts by businesses are added, then the figure reaches 137 percent of GDP.
Debts by households in now far-off 1998 - and four years before the transition to the common euro currency - the figure was a very low 14.7 percent of GDP, a development that points to a "boomerang effect" from the cheap lending subsequently available in the Eurozone.
