NEWS

Over a third of Greeks were living in poverty and hunger: report

Over a third of Greeks were living in poverty and hunger: report

The new elements of the Hellenic Statistical Authority in regard to the economic situation of the country's citizens are scary.

Specifically, under the poverty limit are 3,795,100 people living in Greece, which brings Greece to 4th place among the 28 member states of the European Union with the highest percentage of citizens in poverty.

According to the Greek Statistical Authority contained in the report of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research for the Greek economy, the proportion of Greeks who lived last year in poverty (income below 60% of the national median disposable income) amounted to 34 6% or 3,795,100 people . Indeed, this percentage is steadily increasing since 2010 and the first memorandum (27.6% in 2010, 27.7% in 2011, 31% in 2012 and 34.6% in 2013).

Worse than Greece are Bulgaria (49.3%), Romania (41.7%) and Latvia (36.2%). In other EU countries, which have been implicated in memorandum, the poverty line is 30% of people in Ireland, 28.2% in Spain, 27.1% in Cyprus and 25.3% in Portugal. The five countries with the lowest poverty rates in the European Union are Netherlands (15%), Czech Republic (15.4%), Sweden (15.6%), Finland (17.2%) and Luxembourg (18.4%).

The average in the European Union amounted to 24.8% and 23.3% in the eurozone. Note that based on ELSTAT, the risk for poverty increased significantly in Greece after 2010 and the relative poverty rate increased by 3.4 percentage points or 17.3%. Meanwhile, the poverty gap increased by 24.1%, while the risk of poverty or social exclusion has increased by 7 percentage points or 25.4%.