At the beginning of 2009, the former Prime Minister of Greece revealed that the previous data on government debt levels and deficits were underreported. The crisis (Η Κριση) began.
The crisis led to a loss of confidence in the Greek economy, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and the rising cost of risk insurance on credit default swaps compared to the other Eurozone countries. Greece wasn't able any more to pay it debts, but bankruptcy was avoided. European banks have lent Greece a lot of money for years – especially French and German banks would have lost a lot of money in the event of bankruptcy.
Greek government began to reduce wages and pensions, sell public properties and increase taxes.
But the money was not enough. The International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank agreed in 2010 to a loan-package conditional on the implementation of austerity measures.
Austerity measures and the crisis influenced heavily life in Greece since them: suicide rate jumped to 35% during the first two years of austerity programs, unemployment reached 27,2% with a peak of almost 60% for youth people. Minimum pay was of 480€/month. From 2008 more than 400 thousand young people left the country.
In the 2019 annual report the International Monetary Fund admitted that the missed reorganization of the Greek debt was at least a covered action to save the involved banks. It only shows how big the power and influence of banks and monetary institutions is on politics and as a result on our life.
