Greeks withdraw savings in national 'bank jog'

 

By Damien McElroy 6:30PM BST 20 May 2012

Retired Athens hospital worker Giorgos Vassilakis will today make the same journey to his bank in central Athens to make a withdrawal.

Graffiti depicting the euro symbol as a grenade about to be thrown, on a wall in Athens.

The 65-year-old has been doing the same thing daily, steadily depleting his own savings pile since the country’s cataclysmic May 6 general election. He is busy building up a reserve of cash at home to protect himself should the worst happens and the country falls out of the euro.

“It’s a bit to hold in my home just to be sure I’m okay,” he said. “Since I heard the rumours after the election I have been withdrawing money to have a €3,000 to €5,000 a small stash at home to keep safe.”

Economists have dubbed the collected effect of worried Greeks taking money out of savings accounts a “bank jog,” not quite a run but still a deliberate trend in the same direction.

Bank branches have remained relatively calm and surprisingly empty despite headlines that hundreds of millions were being pulled out each day. But savers are factoring in some form of collapse and that affects how much cash they hold.

The effect can be seen in the twilight as old ladies line up at ATMs and take away a handful of green €100 notes. In Athen’s bars younger customers admit they have used Internet banking to send money to accounts abroad left over from student travels.

 

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Adjusting to the prospect of financial perils ahead is a fact of life. Violent street protests and elections that returned fringe parties have captured the headlines but ordinary Greeks are soberly preparing for a post-euro future in other ways.

As recently as December, George Provopoulos, the head of the Bank of Greece warned of the hellish effects of ‘Drachmageddon’ forcing Greeks to trade “a kilo of olive oil for three kilos of flour” in a moneyless world.

Official have briefed that the initial disruption would trigger a dramatic clampdown by the state with the army drafted on to the streets over an extended bank holiday, currency controls and border inspections to stop capital flight.

But after five years of deep recession there is no longer an absolute horror at the prospect of swapping the euro for a revived Drachma. Even at the top of the financial establishment.

Costas Mitropoulos, the head of the asset fund privatising state property, told The Daily Telegraph he did not believe in Grexit but a switchover could be managed. “Its not going to be nice but it won’t be the end of the world,” he said. “Potential investors in Greek assets just don’t want to be wrong-footed by investing in euros and getting paid out in Drachmas.”

Back at street level, it is ordinary Greeks that are feeling wrong-footed after a two decade binge on cheap money went spectacularly bust.

Few Greeks have the stomach to wait much longer. Sticking with the euro has imposed a whole series of burdens on the family oriented Greeks that are now bitterly resented.

Andreas Bitounes, a small businessman, is coping with a 50pc drop in his income while having to support his unemployed son, Costis, a 27-year-old qualified nurse. “I don’t have enough hours in the day to work to pay my bills but the worst of it is that my son has moved back home and can only find a little bit of money as a delivery boy,” he said. “He’s spent four years at university and can’t find work. Something has to change.”

Greeks withdraw savings in national 'bank jog' - Telegraph