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Spending cuts in Greece caused a rise in male suicides, according to research that attempts to highlight the health costs of austerity.

Echoing official statistics in the UK showing suicide rates are still higher than before the crisis, researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found a correlation between spending cuts and suicides in Greece.

According to the research, every 1% fall in government spending in Greece led to a 0.43% rise in suicides among men. In other words, after controlling for other characteristics that might lead to suicide, 551 men killed themselves "solely because of fiscal austerity" between 2009 and 2010, said the paper's co-author Nikolaos Antonakakis.

"That is almost one person per day. Given that in 2010 there were around two suicides in Greece per day, it appears 50% were due to austerity," he added.

Antonakakis, a senior lecturer in economics and finance, and himself a Greek national, said he had been prompted to look into a potential link between austerity and suicide rates after media stories and reports of friends of friends dying from suicide.

Although there had been studies into the health effects of negative economic growth, there was a gap when it came specifically to spending cuts and health, he said.

Antonakakis and his co-author, the economics professor Alan Collins, said they were surprised at how many suicides appeared linked to austerity and how clear the connection was.

There was also a clear gender divide in the effects of austerity with no obvious rise in female suicide rates, according to the research published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Men aged 45-89 faced the highest suicide risk in response to austerity because they were most likely to suffer cuts to their salaries and pensions, the research said.

Antonakakis and Collins are considering work on the link between austerity and suicide rates in other eurozone countries most affected by the crisis, such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. In the meantime, they are urging policymakers to put more weight on the health costs of spending cuts.

"These findings have strong implications for policymakers and for health agencies," said Antonakakis. "We often talk about the fiscal multiplier effect of austerity, such as what it does to GDP. But what is the health multiplier?

We have to consider the health multipliers of any fiscal consolidation and austerity. The fact we find gender specificity and age specificity can help health agencies target their help."

The research is not the first to claim that cutbacks have cost lives. Last year, the political economist David Stuckler and the physician-epidemiologist Sanjay Basu pointed to soaring suicide rates, rising HIV infections and even a malaria outbreak. But in their book, The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, they argued that such costs were by no means inevitable and that in some countries countermeasures such as active labor market schemes had softened the blow from cuts....
The ECB is a central bank without a nation to support it.
How does it work elsewhere?
The political, banking and central bank elites work together to run things, e.g:
1) Nation has massive debts and needs low interest rates.
Hey, Mr. Central Bank man, lower interest rates we can't handle this debt.
2) Nation's banks have got themselves in the doggie do with latest boom and bust / derivatives / etc ......
Hey, Mr Central bank man how about some QE and low interest rates to rebuild our balance sheets
The only nation that could support the ECB is Germany and Germany is doing rather well.
The German's also don't want to keep bailing out the Club Med nations.
Oh, Mr. ECB, Central Bank man you are the figurehead of a supposedly powerful organisation that is just a paper tiger.