QuickPost News | Athens
ATHENS—Greek businesses are buckling under the strain of a second wave of bank closures this week, as a cash-strapped government shutters 30 branches of Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank amid a €2 billion bailout shortfall. The move, announced Monday by the Bank of Greece, slashes daily ATM withdrawals to €50 and freezes international transfers for non-essential firms, echoing the capital controls of 2015 that crippled commerce. With consumption down 40% in just 72 hours and tourism bookings tanking, the toll on Greece’s fragile recovery is stark—and growing.
The closures stem from a stalled €5 billion EU loan tranche, tied up in Brussels over labor reform disputes, leaving Greek banks with a €1.2 billion liquidity gap. Reserves at the central bank, pegged at €1.8 billion last week, are draining fast, per sources close to the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund. “This isn’t a holiday—it’s a chokehold,” said Vassilis Korkidis, head of the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce, representing 280,000 small businesses. “Retail’s down 60%, and wholesalers can’t pay suppliers. We’re reliving 2015, but with less hope.”
Back then, a six-week bank shutdown saw consumption plummet 70%, factories idle, and supermarket shelves thin as imports stalled (The Guardian, July 2015). Today’s crisis, though shorter-lived so far, bites deeper into a retail sector still scarred by a decade of austerity. In Thessaloniki, café owner Maria Stavros shuttered her doors Tuesday, unable to wire €3,000 for coffee beans from Italy. “No bank, no cash, no customers,” she said. “I’ve got a week before I’m done.” Larger chains like Sklavenitis report stocked warehouses—for now—but warn of shortages by mid-March without payment relief.
Tourism, Greece’s €20 billion lifeline, is hemorrhaging too. A 35% drop in U.S. and UK bookings followed American Express’s halt on Greek transactions, per the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers. “It’s peak season planning time, and we’re dead in the water,” said federation chief Ioannis Retzos. Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, facing a €1.5 billion IMF repayment next month, called the closures “a painful necessity” to avert a bank run, but X users aren’t buying it: “Another bailout, another betrayal,” one post read, racking up 10,000 likes.
The ripple effects are global. European markets dipped 1.8% Tuesday as oil slid to $71 (QuickPost News, March 5), with investors eyeing Greece’s €320 billion debt—still 170% of GDP—warily. “This could spark contagion if trust collapses,” warned Deutsche Bank’s Elena Papadakis. For Greek firms, it’s already here: 15% of SMEs surveyed by SEV-Hellenic Federation of Enterprises plan layoffs by April. “No credit, no imports, no payroll,” Korkidis added. “Next week, it’s survival mode.”
A Brussels summit Friday could unlock funds, but with Syriza hardliners pushing a “no austerity” line, odds are slim. Until then, Greece’s businesses—small and large—face a cashless abyss. QuickPost News is on the ground as this unfolds.
