ATHENS — Greek households' available income fell by 3.87 billion euros, or 11.8 pct, to 28.96 billion in the second quarter of 2020, from 32.83 billion euros in the same period last year, while final consumption spending dropped by 4.1 billion euros or 12.7 pct to 28.4 billion euros in the same month, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Friday.

However, the savings rate (savings/available income) rose to 1.9 pct in the second quarter of 2020 from 0.9 pct in the corresponding period in 2019. More specifically, the statistics service said that private investments (gross fixed capital investments) totaled 2.1 billion euros in the April-June period for an investment rate of 16.3 pct (18.5 pct in 2019). The external balance of goods and services recorded a deficit of 2.03 billion euros (-0.09 billion in 2019), with imports falling by 5.36 pct and exports falling by 7.3 pct. The general government's borrowing totaled 4.8 billion euros in the second quarter, up from 0.3 billion in 2019, reflecting increased liquidity needs because of the coronavirus pandemic.