Μake us preferred on Google Household income and bank deposits are once again at the center of public debate in Greece. Despite improvements in the labor market and gradual wage increases, much of the additional income is being absorbed by the rising cost of living.
Households Spend Most of Their Income on Basic Needs
As a result, a growing number of households are using nearly all of their monthly income to cover basic expenses, leaving little or nothing available for savings.
This helps explain why the overall increase in bank deposits has not been accompanied by a comparable improvement in the financial position of most households.
According to the latest Eurostat data, the savings rate of Greek households remains on a downward trend and continues to lag well behind the European average.
Figures from the Bank of Greece show that deposits are still increasing, driven by both businesses and households. At first glance, that could suggest that Greeks are now managing to save more.
Limited Ability to Build Savings
Behind the headline figures, however, the picture is very different.
The increase in total deposits does not mean that all depositors are adding money to their accounts at the same rate. Instead, a significant share of the growth comes from increasingly large sums being concentrated in a relatively small number of accounts, while the ability of most households to save remains extremely limited.
Data from Greece’s Hellenic Deposit and Investment Guarantee Fund (TEKE) show that at the end of 2025, about 70% of individual depositors had bank balances of up to €1,000.
Another 13% held deposits of between €1,000 and €5,000, 14% had between €5,000 and €50,000, and 1.5% held between €50,000 and €100,000.
The difficulty Greek households face in building savings is also reflected in Eurostat’s latest data for the first quarter of 2026.
While the household savings rate in the eurozone remained unchanged at 14.3% of disposable income, Greece’s household savings rate fell by 3.7 percentage points from the previous quarter, marking the second-largest decline in the European Union after Romania.
58% Say They Are Barely Making Ends Meet
According to the latest economic sentiment survey by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), 58% of consumers said they were “just making ends meet,” down from 62% the previous month.
At the same time, the share of households reporting that they were drawing on their savings rose to 13%, from 11%.
Consumers who said they were saving either a little or a lot accounted for 22% of the total, while the share saying they had gone into debt fell to 7%, from 8% the previous month.
A total of 84% of households said they considered it unlikely that they would be able to save over the next 12 months, while just 15% said saving was likely or very likely.
At the same time, 65% of households expected prices to continue rising at the same pace or faster, while 13%, up from 6%, expected prices to remain stable.
Looking ahead over the next 12 months, 59% of households, down from 66%, said they expected their financial situation to deteriorate slightly or significantly. Only 3% anticipated a modest improvement.
