(ANSAmed) – ATHENS, AUGUST 27 – While Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras says the country is on a course to begin a recovery by the end of next year, the lingering effects of austerity measures are continuing to kill businesses with another 40,000 expected to close by the end of the year, as GreekReporter website writes citing a survey published by the Institute of Small Enterprise of the General Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE). The report also showed that business is falling for 75% of them and they expect it will get worse, not better as Samaras has predicted. The federation said that number of bankrupt businesses will surpass 90,000 this year although other estimates have it as high as 110,000. With the closings, the country’s record unemployment rate is growing too with nearly 1.4 million people out of work and the government planning to fire as many as 40,000 more over the next two years. The report was based on a sample of 1,200 very small and small enterprises, so as to paint a much clearer picture of the financial state in the sectors of manufacturing, trade and services. Such businesses reflect 99.6% of enterprises in Greece. (ANSAmed).

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/economics/2013/08/27/Crisis-another-40-000-stores-shuttering-Greece-report_9206425.html