Incomes have plummeted since 2011

Statistics from 2016 tax declarations reveal a major drop in Greek earnings, with two out of three households declaring incomes of below 1,000 euros a month. In the last five years the share of those households has risen from 49 to 64.11 percent, a figure that looks likely to rise.

Wealthy households are becoming an endangered species in the records of the Finance Ministry. Just 132,000 households declared a family income of more than 50,000 euros in 2016, out of a total of 6.2 million households. In 2011 the number of households with an income of 50,000 euros or above had come to 283,433, out of a total of 5.68 million households. That means some 150,000 households slipped out of the wealthy category within those five years, and the state missed out on taxable income of 9.25 billion euros from them alone.

Likewise, households with incomes of more than 100,000 euros...