ANKARA
Greek exporters have been hit by the imposition of capital controls in banks since last Monday, the Pan-Hellenic Exporters Association said in a press release Thursday.
Greek exporters, in the next 15 days, expect losses of about 7 percent in volume in exports and 28 percent in imports. "We will suffer export earnings losses of €80 million ($88.8 million) per week and shortages of imported raw materials and products, totaling €600 million ($665.2 million) weekly," the association said.
One export manager told Anadolu Agency: "We have a huge problem as foreigners don’t trust the banks anymore, in other words we have to send our products and not get paid until we figure out what is going to happen. But this is not the only worry, besides that if they pay us we don’t know what will happen to our money."
Nikos Arxontis, chief operations officer of the exporter PSE, said: "The real issue is what will happen 15 days from the start of capital controls. This is when the problem will be obvious. I personally believe banks will be closed next week," he added.
Exporters say that banks abroad warn their customers to not send funds to Greece. Funds from abroad are sent to the banks where exporters cannot use them.
The association warned that imports had slowed to the point that some goods would become scarce in the coming weeks.
