FinObservatory

Crisis atlas / GRC / 1929–1964

Greece, 1929–1964

One crisis episode: distinct crisis years merged across gaps of up to two non-crisis years. Types, source agreement, and macro context are drawn from the union of five primary chronologies.

BankingCurrencySovereign debt

Crisis years in this episode

Every distinct (year, type) event inside the 1929–1964 window, with the chronologies flagging it and the count of agreeing sources. Start-year sources (GMD, JST) mark only the first year, so agreement falls in the continuation years.

  1. 1929
    Bankinggmd1 source
  2. 1931
    Bankingrr1 source
    Currencygmd, rr2 sources
  3. 1932
    Bankingrr1 source
    Sovereign debtgmd, rr2 sources
  4. 1933
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  5. 1934
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  6. 1935
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  7. 1936
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  8. 1937
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  9. 1938
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  10. 1939
    Currencygmd, rr2 sources
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  11. 1940
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  12. 1941
    Currencyrr1 source
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  13. 1942
    Currencyrr1 source
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  14. 1943
    Currencyrr1 source
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  15. 1944
    Currencyrr1 source
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  16. 1945
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  17. 1946
    Currencygmd, rr2 sources
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  18. 1947
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  19. 1948
    Currencyrr1 source
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  20. 1949
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  21. 1950
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  22. 1951
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  23. 1952
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  24. 1953
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  25. 1954
    Currencygmd, rr2 sources
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  26. 1955
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  27. 1956
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  28. 1957
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  29. 1958
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  30. 1959
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  31. 1960
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  32. 1961
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  33. 1962
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  34. 1963
    Sovereign debtrr1 source
  35. 1964
    Sovereign debtrr1 source

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | Reinhart-Rogoff via HBS BFFS | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database Methodology

Laeven-Valencia banking-crisis detail

This banking episode is not in the Laeven-Valencia systemic banking crises database, which covers systemic banking crises from 1970. The crisis is dated here by other chronologies (GMD, JST, Reinhart-Rogoff, or ESRB), none of which report a fiscal cost or output loss.

Macro context, 1922–1971

Seven years either side of the episode. Each panel has its own scale; the crisis window is shaded. Only indicators with data for Greece in this window are shown. Bank credit growth (year over year in total loans) is available for the 18 Jordà-Schularick-Taylor advanced economies.

Inflation (% y/y)
-200000k0200000k400000k600000k192219291971
Real GDP growth (% y/y)
-50-2502550192219291971
Policy rate (%)
051015192219291971
Govt debt (% of GDP)
050100150192219291971
Unemployment (%)
0246192219291971

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 (credit) Real GDP growth is derived as the year-over-year change in real GDP; current account and government debt are percent of GDP; policy rate is the central-bank rate; bank credit growth is the year-over-year change in JST total loans. Methodology

How each source dates this episode

The chronologies disagree on start years and durations. This table is generated from the event rows, not curated: it lists, per crisis type, which source flags which years inside the window.

Banking
  • Global Macro Database1929
  • Reinhart-Rogoff1931, 1932
Currency
  • Global Macro Database1931, 1939, 1946, 1954
  • Reinhart-Rogoff1931, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1954
Sovereign debt
  • Global Macro Database1932
  • Reinhart-Rogoff1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | Reinhart-Rogoff via HBS BFFS | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database Methodology

Documented policy responses

5 interventions from the Metrick-Schmelzing banking-crisis database whose recorded year falls inside this episode window (1929–1964). Each row is one documented government or central-bank action, tagged with the database’s own intervention categories and short code, under the crisis code it assigns. Matching is exact: same country, intervention year inside the window. The database’s global-crisis rows (no country) are never matched here.

GRC-1931Greece
  1. Jun-1929GuaranteesAG
  2. Jun-1929GuaranteesOLG
  3. Jan-1930LendingAHEL
  4. Nov-1931LendingBBEL
  5. Nov-1931LendingBBEL

Source: Metrick-Schmelzing Banking-Crisis Interventions Database (Yale Program on Financial Stability) Cite as: Metrick, Andrew, and Paul Schmelzing, "Banking-Crisis Interventions Across Time and Space," working paper, 2024 (dataset consulted 2026-07-10). License: Creative Commons attribution. Methodology

Policy-response case studies (external)

For qualitative accounts of how authorities intervened in systemic crises, see the Yale Program on Financial Stability New Bagehot Project, a library of financial-crisis intervention case studies. It is a separate qualitative resource; no specific case is asserted to match this episode.