The tide has turned for one of the most persisting narratives of the Greek crisis. For most of the past eight years, it was largely assumed that Greek people have been stashing their savings in their homes, for fear of Grexit at first and then as a result of the capital controls and it turns out that part of it may be true.
This is at least implied by a continuous increase in bank deposits. According to Bank of Greece data, for the 10th straight month, term deposits rose in April, and increased by over three billion euros in the 10-month period. At the same time, there was an increase in deposits in current accounts, albeit to a lesser degree, as they rose by 1.78bn euros.
This increase is believed to be due to the influx of new capital; the greatest part of last year’s increase had come to the banks from the liquidation of investments in mutual funds abroad, which were made in the sixth-month period prior to the imposition of capital controls, in June, 2015 and have been brought back to Greece by December 2017.
As for the recent new deposits, they are believed to mostly come from cash placed in bank safety deposit boxes or stashed elsewhere.
