Athens // It has been dubbed “Black Monday”. Jittery housewives, shoppers and business owners queued in vain at ATMs of closed banks in Athens.
“I have a baby to feed, what am I supposed to do?” said secretary Zoe Kallis, 32, after failing to get money out of a third ATM in the wealthy Kolonaki district.
Prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s decision to close banks for seven days and limit withdrawals has unnerved Greeks. The cash shortage has been worsened by the fact that today is pay day for many. But it is also the day Greece must make a €1.6 billion (Dh6.55bn) payment to the International Monetary Fund.
With empty coffers and the €7.2bn left in Greece’s bailout fund blocked by the European Central Bank, things look grim.
Cafe tables were laid out across Athens on Monday, but owner Nikos Gyallitsis expected business to halve. “To shop you have to be happy, confident, and now you don’t know what will happen the next day.”
Near by, clothes shop owner Panayotis Vergetis said he was slashing 30 per cent off prices for his wares this week to try to lure people in.
“I’m afraid I’m going to lose my job, to be broke,” said Sofia Chronopoulos, who works in a fabric shop. “The banks are closed, the boss has no money, there are bills to pay.”
Cash withdrawals are officially limited to €60 a day but many Greeks said they had failed to get any money out at all.
A panicked-looking Chris Bakas, 28 and unemployed, was sweating as he stared at the ATM screen.
“No money, no hope, how did we get in this situation? This is Black Monday,” Mr Bakas said.
Others said it was made worse by a “pack-like fear” and urged fellow Greeks to keep their heads.
In the city’s historic Syntagma square – the scene of fierce riots in the past over austerity measures imposed by the country’s international creditors – tourists snapping photographs of the parliament buildings said they felt the tension in the air.
“There’s a sort of eerie calm, perhaps the calm before the storm,” said Jestin Marina from France, on holiday for three days with her husband and son.
The family brought extra cash with them and had been warned about the possibility of being robbed, but said, “We’re not afraid.”
Swiss tourist Michele Ammann said he had also brought plenty of cash with him.
“We’ve been budgeting to make sure it doesn’t run out. Our hotel is in the suburbs and people there seem very tired, very worried,” Mr Ammann said.
“I feel sorry for the Greeks. They’ve been asked to sacrifice everything.”
* Agence France-Presse
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