Source: AFP
Greeks have moved at least EUR16 billion (US$21 billion) in funds to foreign banks in the last two years, about a third of which went to Britain, the finance minister said on Friday.
Evangelos Venizelos said that overall, depositors had withdrawn EUR65 billion from Greek banks since 2009 when the country began a tailspin into its worst economic crisis in decades.
“Of that total, EUR16 billion (have) been legally taken abroad,” Venizelos told parliament.
“Less than 10 per cent has gone to Switzerland, and 32 per cent has gone to Britain,” he said.
Venizelos was defending a government decision to support Greek banks, which received EUR5 billion in state aid under a 2008 support plan in exchange for shares, and more than EUR120 billion overall in state guarantees.
They are also to receive another EUR40 billion under a eurozone bailout deal that officials have been labouring on for weeks.
Details of that deal are expected to be worked out by next week.
“The basic elements of the deal are ready,” government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis told Real FM radio on Friday.
The money will help banks recover from a major writedown in the value of Greek sovereign bonds that they own.
Private-sector creditors holding about EUR200 billion worth of Greek bonds ‒ now vastly undervalued after successive downgrades ‒ are being asked to accept a writedown in value of 70 per cent or more to help Greece meet its challenging repayment schedule.
