final consumption, is illuminated by the Hellenic
Statistical Authority’s data regarding the accounts
of households and non-profit institutions serving
households. According to these figures, in the
second quarter of 2012, as compared to the same
quarter of 2011:
● The compensation of employees decreased by
€2.8 billion, or 15.1%.
● Social benefits were reduced by €1.2 billion, or
9.5%.
● Final consumption expenditure fell by €2.9 bil-
lion, or 7.3%.
● In contrast, taxes (on income, wealth etc.) rose
by 37.3%.
As a result of these fluctuations, disposable
income fell by €5.4 billion, or 13.6%. If, indeed,
we chose to use the year 2008 as a basis for
comparisons, the loss of disposable income
would exceed €10.3 billion (-23.2%), while
employee compensation would be reduced by
more than €5 billion (-24.3%).
In the employment front, commerce showed
remarkable resilience in 2009-2010, but the situ-
ation has changed dramatically since then. Thus,
whereas in that two-year period employment in
trade fell by approximately 30,000 (3rd quarter
data), more than 135,000 people lost their jobs in
2011-2012 . As a matter of fact, in just four years,
employment in trade lost all the gains of the 11-
year period 1998-2008.
Trade with Greece
54
The “runner-up” was the large, but highly
demand-elastic, consumer durables market (furniture,
electrical equipment, household equipment), where the
drop in sales reached 47.6%.
”
“
