Bank of Greece

Greece posted a 5.2-billion-euro decrease in the current and capital account deficit in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2022, a development related to the significant growth in the balance of secondary incomes, i.e.

Electronic transactions help increase value-added tax revenues and contain the shadow economy, Finance Ministry data from the first quarter of the year show.

Recently, both the Bank of Greece and a team of economists at Alpha Bank sounded the alarm: The production gap - i.e. the difference between the GDP we produce and what we could produce with full exploitation of the available production tools - reached zero. For the economy to grow, investments are needed. Otherwise, prices will keep rising.

A ghost from the past, the current account deficit, has come to the fore again, on the occasion of the European Commission's spring forecasts, which calculated it at an alarming 11.8% of GDP in 2022, but also the strong warning by Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras on this specific issue.

The growing use of plastic money by Greek consumers for transactions in brick-and-mortar stores or e-commerce is strengthening the appetite of certain people for intercepting card details and embezzling larger amounts.

The funds invested last year in the housing market nationwide are estimated at over 8 billion euros, highlighting the upward trend in demand but also in prices.

This amount is high considering both the fact that banks no longer finance 100% of the value of properties to be purchased, and the fact that only 20% of purchases and sales are made through bank lending.

The interest rate spread in Greece between new deposits and loans increased to 5.50 percentage points in March as the weighted average interest rate on new deposits remained almost unchanged at 0.23%, while the corresponding rate on new loans increased to 5.73%, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

Banks are expecting a decrease in demand for business loans, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises, in the second quarter of the year, as a result of the rise in interest rates and the increase in the cost of money, which discourages borrowing.

Deposits placed by the private sector increased by 2.318 billion euros in March, after a decrease of €1.456 billion in the previous month, the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday.

In a monthly report the central bank said that the monthly net flow of total deposits was positive by €2.98 billion in March 2023, compared with a negative net flow of €1.09 billion in February 2023.

The banking sector shook off foreign and domestic concerns - related to the decline of US lender First Republic and the promise by main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to nationalize National Bank of Greece if he comes to power - and swung to gains at the end of Wednesday's bourse session, leaving the benchmark with moderate gains.