Saturday, October 23, 2010
A World Upside Down for Greeks
The Greek government increased taxes and cut public salaries in light of the financial crisis. In return they received 110 billion Euros in rescue packages from the euro-zone partners and the IMF. However, small business continue to suffer. A small business in Greece is defined as less than 10 employees and makes up for 96% of all enterprises. Small businesses employ 2 million of the 5 million person work force in Greece. The government has pledged 5 million euros in subsidies to support the small businesses for the next year and 25 billion in bank guarantees to issue more loans to small businesses. Still, small businesses are suffering from higher operating costs and fewer sales. Retailers have seen their revenue drops on average by 35%.
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2 comments:
Well it looks like they are trying to do their best to help out small businesses. It looks like they are trying to follow the steps that the US is doing to help businesses. However, there does not seem to be many incentives like the US has. The government needs to keep helping small businesses and to increase innovation. The government is also planning to cut taxes on businesses which is also helpful. It should be interesting to see how small businesses do in Greece in the new few years.
I think Greece has enough incentives to help small businesses because 2m people of the work force are employed by them. If small businesses were to shut down, the unemployment rate in Greece would shoot up. The government is doing a good thing to help the small businesses and should in fact carry on such activities until they are stable!
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