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The collapse of the Athens Stock Exchange continues and its main index closed at 671.43 basis points, registering a decline of 1.58%. The total turnover of the stock exchange on Thursday reached € 51.33 million and the only profit makers in the pessimistic environment are the fields of real estate with a jump of 2.23%, the health care sector - 1.9% and the shares of companies with state participation increased by 4.03%. All three areas that registered a surge of demand are related to the privatization process, which is to be "unblocked" in Greece and bring valuable assets at very attractive prices on the market soon. The indicators that dropped are of the banking sector by 4.96%, the chemical industry by 7.01% and personal and household goods by 3.67%.

Meanwhile, the National Statistical Institute announced that the retail sector in Greece continues to shrink and decreased by 6.5% in September 2011 compared with the same period last year. The trend remains negative, although the drop in the index of retail trade for 2010 compared to 2009 was higher, 10.5%. Turnover in retail trade has also inevitably dropped and if trade in fuels is not considered, the reduction is 4.1%. If fuel is added to the general indicator, the drop is 3.7%.

The manufacturing industry has also reported losses, according to the monthly report of Makrit. For November 2011, the index of the manufacturing industry (PMI) is 40.5 points, which is 5% lower than October this year. This is the lowest level this indicator has reached in the last 27 months and the future trends are still bleak. Despite the efforts of companies to increase the interest in the goods produced by reducing prices, new orders are falling sharply. The companies are obviously trying in vain to help the industry by reducing the volume of non-productive activities and through cost optimization, because their efforts are not successful.

At the same time, for the 21^st month in a row, the price of raw materials used by Greek companies increases, mainly due to the pressure of tax increases and administrative difficulties in the public sector. Another way in which local producers are trying to compensate for the loss of competitiveness is by reducing the price of the finished product, but the lower demand in foreign markets hampers the realization of the goods and does not boost production. Therefore, jobs are lost, and according to Makrit, the fastest pace of job losses in the last 15 months was reported in November.

Recession in Greece is intensifying and while the government reported that its level at the end of 2011 would be around 5.6%, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development states that it could exceed 6%. The debt crisis has affected manufacturers of Greece on many levels in November, leading to the fatest rate of reduced production in the last twelve years. The measures associated with strict budgetary savings continue to reduce domestic demand and rising costs due to higher taxes coupled with fears of subsequent effects in the eurozone have led to a further weakening of demand from abroad. The levels of new orders continue to fall each month and the Greek production will continue to shrink, states Richard Clarke from Makrit and author of the report on the developments in the Greek manufacturing industry.