BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Nearly half of all Argentines report they will never deposit another peso in a bank, a survey conducted by a local polling company and published in the Clarin newspaper indicated Monday.
That number is down from the 56 percent who said the same thing in March. The Catterberg & Asoc. survey, conducted by telephone with 600 respondents, also found that 37 percent of Argentines "would return to depositing money when things are back to normal."
Only 0.7 percent of those asked said they had made a deposit in a bank since the Argentine government implemented a partial freeze on accounts in December. Some 8 percent of Argentines would make a deposit, even while the freeze on accounts is in place, should banks offer a good interest rate and include perks such as discounts on purchases made with a debit or credit card.
The survey also found that of those people who think the Argentine economic situation will improve in the next three years, 49 percent would make a deposit when the freeze is lifted. Among those asked, women were more conservative than men, with 55 percent saying they will never make another bank deposit, as compared to 42 percent of men.
"Without a doubt, this study found that once the economic situation of Argentina improves, the confidence of people in the banks will come about more rapidly," said Martín Gonzalez, who was in charge of the survey.
"These findings are related to the expectations people have about the macroeconomic situation of the country," Gonzalez said. "The better the expectations about the improvement of the economy, the lower the percentage of people who will refuse to deposit their money in the banks."
