ECONOMY

Business sector is shrinking

The ongoing crisis has had a serious impact on Greek entrepreneurship, with turnover shrinking and more companies closing down than starting up. Data supplied by the Finance Ministry for the period from 2006 to 2008 show that last year there were 28,354 fewer enterprises founded (including the number of people registering themselves as self-employed) compared to 2006. The situation was particularly acute in 2008, when for every three new companies founded two closed down, which illustrates the problems that companies and the self-employed face. A total of 23,599 new enterprises were established in 2008, down from 28,406 in 2006, while 9,717 closed down; at the same time 73,034 registered as self-employed (against 96,611 in 2006), while 58,737 decided to stop. The previous government also failed to settle the debts and unpaid taxes of companies and the self-employed as it had planned, due to the latter’s inability to pay.

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