Enterprising spirit takes a hit in third quarter of the year
The number of new enterprises in Greece has tumbled since June, with the rate dropping below 2,000 per month and coming close to just 1,000 in August. Although there has been a decline in the registering of new companies every month since the start of 2015 compared with the two previous years, the serious political and economic developments since June have inflicted a huge blow on entrepreneurship in Greece.
New entries in the General Electronic Commercial Registry (GEMI) in July numbered about half those in July 2014, while the strong downward trend has continued in August and September. There was also a big drop in exits from the register, but this was due to the practical reason of the 22-day bank holiday from June 29 to July 20, with thousands of shutdowns expected to have followed that period.
The GEMI database showed that new entries in the commercial register amounted to 21,761 in the first nine months of the year, against 28,334 in the same period in 2014 and 32,013 in the January-September 2013 period.
This means that there has been a 23.2 percent decline in the creation of new businesses from last year, when the drop had amounted to 32 percent from 2013.
In terms of months, July, August and September have seen the greatest decline in company registrations on an annual basis, ranging from 31.8 percent to 47.7 percent.
The above fall reflects the results of the long negotiations between the government and its creditors in the first half of the year, the July 5 referendum, the bank closure, the capital controls, which are still in place, the agreement with the creditors and the decision to call snap polls for September 20. At the start of the year there had been hopes of a rebound as it was thought that the market had consolidated, but things have deteriorated again.
