There is little risk of a bank run, Greece's finance minister told the Wall Street Journal, although fears the country could be forced to leave the eurozone have spooked global markets. "The probability of a bank run is very small," Guikas Hardouvelis said in comments published in the newspaper's Friday edition. "The public understands that deposits are safe."
Global markets plunged at the beginning of last week, seized by a fresh bout of fears that Greece may be forced to leave the euro. A snap election in Greece on January 25 could bring to power the far-left Syriza party, which wants to abandon the austerity policy imposed by the EU and IMF as part of the country's 240-billion-euro ($282 billion) international bailout.
Hardouvelis said as the election campaign is still in its early stages "we have to watch depositors' behaviour very carefully." Bank deposits have been declining in recent months as the country has been plagued by a new wave of political uncertainty. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had advanced the presidential election, but the gambit failed and forced the calling of an early general election.
Hardouvelis warned against reading too much into the drop in bank deposits by 3.0 billion euros in the past two months, saying it could be linked to tax payments due at the end of the year. He added that the "...sum is small compared with the roughly 70 billion euros that have fled Greeks banks over the past five years." Nevertheless Hardouvelis was concerned that uncertainty triggered by the election could result in Greece's rebound being undermined.
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