Debt deflation in action: Greece

Household debt in Greece is  pretty low (70% of GDP, 2013), at least compared with countries like the Netherlands (139%, 2012), Denmark (149%, 2012) or Ireland (112%, 2012). Also, after 2010 Greek households paid down 24 billion of debt (part of this decline might be due to debts being written off by banks), despite of this debt as a % of GDP debt increased since 2010 as nominal GDP (a measure of total income) went down.  While nominal debt is about as high as in 2007/2008, the index of debt as a % of GDP is about 40%-points higher (as a % of GDP it increased from about 55% to 70%).