Outcome of an unprecedented recession or the lending practices of domestic credit institutions in the pre-crisis era?
Greece Focus Notes
04 May 2016
Using a new dataset of macroeconomic and banking-related variables we attempt to explain the evolution of “bad” loans in Greece over the period 2005-2015. Our findings suggest that the primary cause of the sharp increase in non-performing loans (NPLs) following the outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis can be mainly attributed to the unprecedented contraction of domestic economic activity and the subsequent rise in unemployment.
