Can't find data on private deposit outflows for the EU countries

Having examined the recent developments in the Eurozone, one of the main consequences of the euro crisis is the incline of outflow in private deposits as individuals perceive the economic climate quiet unattractive in certain areas. In addition countries suffering the immediate threat of a potential default face the  concern of a withdrawal from the Euro as the case for Greece that could cause a collapse or turbulence in the banking sector with unpredicted results which at the worst scenario can even mean a breakdown in financial institutions that will hence be unable to preserve the deposits of the individuals.

Given the above macroeconomic picture in the Euro area, households that foresee negative financial prospects attempt to protect the lifetime savings by either gambling in currency, i.e. exchanging their euro saving accounts into some different currency that they perceive as more stable, such as dollars, english pound, australian or Canadian dollars, etc. This option guarantees the protection of the deposits in the scenario that the country to which the bank account is held decides to exit the euro and devaluate a newly launched currency. However, the threat of this choice is that the banking institution of the domestic country that finds itself under a default regime, might end up bankrupt as well. Since the deposits are held at home (where home defaults and the financial institution faces bankruptcy) the owner might risk to lose all the deposits regardless of the currency that the account is in. As a result, gambling in currency while keeping the deposits at home should be selected if the individual foresees that the default and the devaluation of the new currency after the country exits euro will not harm the banking sector or threaten financial institutions with a potential collapse.

Alternatively, the second scenario a forward-looking depositor might select, is to send the deposits to a financial institution abroad, to a country that is more protected from the current euro financial crisis. In such case, even after a country in the Eurozone defaults, the deposits will not be threatened as the banking sector of the recipient country will be more secure.

I have analysed the two mechanisms of "rational" (?) investing thinking so as to explain two interesting measures that are derived from the concepts. These are the deposit outflows by country and the currency preference by country. The first involves the individuals who select to expatriate their money to a foreign financial institution. For academics and journalists it is extremely useful to measure the countries that the individuals choose to send funds to. The second, is a figure of "currency strength" in the minds of the individual depositors. Both may constitute an exceptional index of economic climate expressed by the confidence of the private account holders.

Unfortunately, although I thoroughly examined the sites of both Eurostat and European Central Bank for data related to the status and movement (flows) of private account holders by country, I was unable to retrieve anything useful or relevant. The problem is that this information should exist and financial institutions, policymakers and a few journalists are aware of. Does anyone have an idea how or where relevant information may be retrieved? I would appreciate any recommendations as i ended up desperate after searching in most relevant data portals. I am mainly interested in deposit outflows and currency conversions for countries at the core of the crisis which belong to the periphery of the EU such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain. 

Funnily enough, in various newspapers the reader will be able to find numerous articles containing information about private deposit outflows such as number of outflows in money and frequency, recipient countries etc. The articles i have read, unfortunately, don't reveal the sources of the data while some mention that are derived from confidential banking sources and analysts.

The most excellent depiction of the EU debt crisis

I found an exceptional presentation of rough  data by various official sources like Eurostat, IMF, World Bank in tables and graphs regarding the macroeconomic situation and the debt crisis the EU is experiencing. The site is knowledge Performance Indicators (KPI) and can be accessed here. Worth a visit! Unfortunately the data cannot be automatically extracted by the KPI Library.

A truth about the impact of Euro on Intra-EU trade

Few days ago I came across an article entitled "This Chart is the Holy Grail for Understanding Europe" and signed by Joe Weisenthal. While discussing the recent dramatic developments in the EU with Greece and Italy being at the very edge of economic and social stability and in essence flirting with a "default" which could, especially for the case and magnitude of Italy, propagate the financial crisis towards the core of Europe, Joe mentions that primarily and almost solely Germany is the country that has been influenced positively by the EMU through an incline in exports.

I remembered that i had written an essay (2010) on the issue of intra-EU trade and its connection to the implementation of the common currency. You may read the entire essay here.

My main points were:

1) The basic economic gains from the Economic Monetary Unions and hence the Euro zone were the elimination of the transaction costs, the exchange rate certainty that comes with a single currency, and the price transparency since the consumer can compare national with foreign (within the Euro area) prices more easily. As was explained, all lead to a possible increase in trade since these parameters affect the economic environment in a positive way allowing space for extra trading activity.

2)  The prevailing dimension is that Euro does have a positive effect on trade among the Euro zone countries but this is NOT as high as
Rose forecasted (maximum 15 to 20 percent in the long run) and thus the gains from an increase in trade should not be a unique reason for a country to enter the euro area.

3) it was found that entering the euro zone leads to trade creation (not diversion).

4) Lastly, should be noted that although evidence shows a certain increase in trade after the adoption of the Euro among the Euro zone countries, has not been clarified whether this phenomenon is solely caused by the Euro or other policies that led to the establishment of the European Monetary Union.

5) Hence, our main consensus is that Euro should lead to a limited increase in trade among participant countries but is not statistically significant that the main reason for this increase is the introduction of the common currency.

Hence, given the observations that I made on the essay, intra-EU trade seems to be affected slightly positively by the introduction of the European currency while even that is argued by some economists.

The truth about the euro is that only core euro zone states like Germany (and even perhaps only Germany) are expanding exports to the other euro allies. The latter (especially those at the periphery) who tend to be less competitive for the beginning of the euro advventure find themeslves losing exports to other euro states.

In Greece, 'corruption pervades every corner of life' - by Jon Henley

I repost the newblog post by the Guardian

Original article stable link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/20/europe-breadline-corrution-pervades-corner

AT THE BOTTOM I INCLUDE MY COMMENT

Jon Henley is travelling through Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece to hear the human stories behind the European debt crisis. Here Leonidas Pitsoulis describes Greek corruption

Many Greeks have extremely low levels of personal debt – by western standards. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

Leonidas Pitsoulis, 43, returned to Thessaloniki seven years ago after leaving at 18 to study and then teach in America and at the LSE in London. Coming back as an adult after leaving as a teenager was an eye-opener, he said.