Washington Post
May 16, 2012
Let’s say you were an ordinary person living in Greece and had a stash of euros deposited in your local bank. You’ve been watching all the political chaos unfold on TV and listening to chatter about how Greece might have to exit the euro altogether. What would you do?
Why, you’d take your euros out of your local Greek bank and put them someplace safe — say, in a German bank. No sense risking the prospect that the Greek government could leave the euro zone and replace all your hard-earned money with some less-valuable drachmas.
And that’s exactly what a lot of Greeks have been doing these past two years, withdrawing about €2 to €3 billion worth of euros from the country each month. Lately, though, these withdrawals have been accelerating. A lot. On Monday, Greek depositors took out some €700 million in a single day, sending their euros elsewhere for safekeeping. It’s a smart move by those individuals. The problem, though, is that if everyone in Greece does this, it could inadvertently get Greece kicked out of the euro.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment