32% people in Greece still at risk of poverty: survey

One in three people in Greece still faces the specter of poverty and social exclusion, after ten years of financial crisis, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) said in a report released here on Friday.

Greece exited last summer the bailout programs which had kept the economy afloat in the euro zone with many indexes improving lately, but ELSTAT's 2018 Survey on Income and Living Conditions shows that many households are still struggling.

People at risk of poverty or social exclusion represented 31.8 percent of the total population, or 3.3 million, recording a decrease by 3 percentage points compared with 3.7 million people, or 34.8 percent of the total population in 2017, the report indicated.

The share of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion aged 18-64 years amounted to 33.0 percent among Greek nationals and to 56.5 percent among foreign nationals residing in Greece, ELSTAT experts noted.

The poverty threshold was set at 4,718 euros (5,331 U.S. dollars) per person annually or at 9,908 euros for households with two adults and two children under 14 years old.

According to ELSTAT, 29.5 percent of poor households said they lacked food, including chicken, fish, meat or vegetables every other day. A further 22.9 percent could not afford adequate heating during the winter, while 76.7 percent of poor households and 46.1 percent of non-poor households faced difficulties in coping with extraordinary but necessary spending of around 375 euros.

What's more, 21.2 percent of the population cannot afford to go out with friends, 30.1 percent cannot afford to participate regularly in entertainment or sports, 10.7 percent of Greek households did not own a car while 4.4 percent said they did not own a personal computer.