Greece has seen an upsurge in small companies and shops offering to buy gold, driven by record prices and the need many people have to raise cash during hard times when jobs are uncertain and money scarce.
“Sell your gold,” “We buy your jewels,” the signs read in Ermou Street, a pedestrian precinct right in the heart of Athens thronged with people doing their Christmas shopping, as money changers and jewellers get in on the act too.
In recent months it has become common to have leaflets stuffed into your mailbox or handed out around the city, suggesting that Greeks might want to sell their old baptismal cross so they can afford their dream holiday.
Those buying the gold are often reluctant to talk to the press and in one small company office off the street, a worker says only that the owner is abroad and she has been told not to talk to journalists.
Gold hit a record high of $1,921 an ounce in early September as nervous investors bought the precious metal as a safe hedge against the eurozone debt crisis which has spread remorselessly from its epicentre in Greece.
The price has fallen since then to around $1,700 but that is still very high compared with the historic range, making that old gold necklace or ring kept in a drawer surprisingly valuable.
The Greek market gets an additional boost because the economy has been in recession since 2008 and as the government adopts stinging austerity measures to meet the terms of the country’s EU-IMF bailout accords, times are only getting harder.
(source: AFP, foto: AFP, Louisa Gouliamaki)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
