Greek households' income down 6.2 pct in Q1

Greek households lost 1.9 billion euros from their available income in the first quarter of 2013, compared with the same period last year, hit by an 11.1 pct decline in workers' earnings and an 11.7 pct decline in social benefits, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.

The statistics service, in a report, said that Greek households' and non-profit institutions' available income fell by 6.2 pct in the first quarter of 2013 to 29 billion euros, from 30.9 billion euros in the corresponding period last year.

Workers' wages fell by 2.09 billion euros to 5.439 billion euros in the January-March period, while socia benefits dropped by 1.56 billion euros to 9.19 billion euros over the same period, falling to 38.3 pct of total spending from 46.7 pct in 2012. This decline came despite the fact that general governmet spending grew to 24.022 billion euros from 23.028 billion euros in 12 months, with primary spending rising to 22.158 billion euros from 19.605 billion euros.

Greek households' final consumer spending fell by 8.9 pct to 32.4 billion euros, while the net savings to gross available income rate fell to -11.7 pct in the first three months of
2013 from -15 pct in the same period last year.

Gross fixed capital investments by non-financial companies fell by 3.5 pct to 3.06 billion euros in the three-month period.
The general government's net borrowing requirements totaled 7.4 billion euros in the first quarter, up from 3.9 billion euros last year.