Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants

Despite a small dip in their activities in the first half of the year, Greek small and medium-sized businesses are confident that the second half will be better.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday set out his proposals for a "radical and bold" reform of private debt that will help stabilize the Greek economy and push it toward growth, describing the economic policy of the current leftist-led government as a failure. 

Conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday attacked the left-led government's economic policy, promising a fresh policy mix to kickstart the economy if his New Democracy party becomes government.

Olive oil will have to be presented at the table in sealed bottles to customers at restaurants and tavernas across Greece as of January 1.

The new regulation is aimed at limiting the use of olive oil produced in bulk and presented in unsealed dispensers at the table as a salad dressing, for example.

Four in 10 Greek businesses (40.3 percent) consider it likely that they will have to close shop within the year, according to a survey by the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE), presented by the ANA-MPA news agency on Thursday.

Greek society is evolving into a sum of households surviving on pensions while its most dynamic section, young people aged between 18 and 35, are abandoning it or considering abandoning it to seek a better life abroad, a survey by the Small Enterprises Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (IME GSEVEE) has concluded.

Younger enterprises appear to have more sales and greater resistance to the financial crisis than those that are 10 years old or more, due to the accumulated problems and obligations that older companies tend to be burdened with, such as higher rents and amassed debts, along with obsolete practices.

Some 6000 Greek firms have relocated to Bulgaria over the last two years alone, English-language Kathimerini quotes a business representative as saying.

According to Giorgos Kavathas, who heads the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE), Greeks are behind some 60 000 new tax registrations and bank accounts in Greece's northern neighbor.

Over a third of Greek households (34.4 percent) had an annual income of no more that 10,000 euros last year, according to a survey conducted by the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE).

One in every two small and medium-sized Greek enterprises is facing the threat of closure within 2014, while for very small businesses the risk concerns two out of three, according to a Marc survey conducted for the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE) and presented on Tuesday in Thessaloniki.