A study by two German researchers concludes that of the 216 billion euros of the redemptions of the last six years, only 9.7 billion went to the Greek budget. That is, less than 5% of the total served the population, while 95% went to the coffers of European banks.
The study published by the German economic newspaper Handelsblatt is written by Jan Hildebrand and Thomas Sigmund, researchers at the European School of Technology and Management in Berlin. And concludes that the priority of bailouts designed by the ECB, European Commission and IMF was to save the banks and private creditors, not the Greek people.
"The bailout packages served first to rescue the banks," confirms Jörg Rocholl, president of the institution and adviser to Minister Schäuble. The study shows that 86.9 billion were used to pay off old debts, 52.3 billion went to pay interest and 37.3 billion went to the recapitalization of banking in Greece.
Although the money paid for debt service is always an expense of any state budget, the truth is that Greece has been bankrupt since 2010, notes the German newspaper, casting doubt on the way the redemptions were conceived.
"Greece would be in a better position today if there had been debt relief at the beginning of the crisis in 2010, much damage would have been avoided for both Greece and Europe as a whole," says Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Research Institute Economical (DIW), to Handelsblatt.
