Within the last year, over 1500 Greek businesses have relocated their premises to neighbouring countries while more and more people decide to do their shopping outside the Greek borders.
According to the National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) announcement last Thursady, this trend is devastating for the Greek market since 1 out of 4 enterprises located near the country’s borders closes down or is relocated abroad. ESEE points out that the harsh austerity measures lead middle class businessmen to destruction.
ESEE also noted that “cross-border illegal trade and smuggling are most common in the regions of Macedonia, Thrace, Northern Aegean and the Dodecanese, with more than 500 million euros being spent to Bulgaria, Skopje and Turkey respectively for the purchase of consumer goods annually”.
Besides clothing, footwear, cigarettes, petrol, dental services and car services, many Greeks buy their weekly food supplies from neighboring countries because of their lower prices.
ΕSEE recommended different measures in order to stop this “consumer immigration”, such as “reducing taxation on all enterprises operating near the country’s borders, lifting all visa issue hurdles and imposing stricter inspections in open market sales from third countries”.
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