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Shrinking of the disposable income by rates approaching 30% occurs in every eight of ten households in Thessaloniki over the last 12 months, with the result that they reduce their expenses even at the supermarket, and generally among the respondents prevails the feeling of pessimism about the near future.

At the same time 84% of the local firms reported a decrease in turnover and expect more difficult days over the next 6 months, with increasing unemployment  and number of businesses closing. Surprisingly, only 1 of 10 businessmen believe that the memorandum prevented the bankruptcy of the country and the cessation of payments, as well as the fact that 5 out of every 10 people consider the "trimming" of the debt to be a solution for overcoming the crisis with the debt in Greece.

These findings are the conclusions of a survey entitled "Thirteen months after the signing of the Memorandum. The consequences for businesses and consumers ", held by the company «Interview» for the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among 505 members of the Chamber and 300 individuals.

Cuts

After processing the statistical data on the position of consumers, the conclusion was reached that 82.9 percent of the people have cut to a great extent their spending on clothing and footwear. Then comes the "knife" in the cost on travel and entertainment (67.2 percent), in the supermarket (25%) in the use of cars (23.4 percent) in household appliances and the purchase of computers (21.9%). As for basic foodstuffs, 34% of the consumers surveyed responded that they prefer products with the brand name of the supermarket that offers them (and 45% of them are doing it permanently) and 27% answered that they have limited even those purchases.

As to the course of the economy, 87% of the respondents are pessimistic, 64% responded that in the next six months the income of Greek households will get worse, 86% - that there is no chance for saving, while 72 percent believe that the Memorandum has contributed to the worsening of the Greek economy, while 49% want "trimming" of the debt.

Dismissals

At the corporate level in almost every third of ten companies (namely 27.2%) said they would proceed with the dismissals, because the fall in turnover is significant for 84% of the respondents, while 64.2% expect turnover to decrease more over the next six months as 77.4% see a deterioration in the economy. As a result of this climate, 83% of respondents are pessimistic about the future of their companies and do not exclude the option of closure of more companies.

"Our forces are exhausted," said Chamber President Panagiotis Papadopoulos, presenting the survey, and added that a change should occur, which will lead to restarting the economy, because with today's realities "we are moving in a dark tunnel without any beam of light."

National agreement

The President of the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce also indicated that only a government of national consensus can lead the country out of the swamp. "This can not be done by neither one nor the other party alone. A government composed of technocrats is necessary, which should manage to change the situation and restore the economy", he said, adding: "We missed our chance for a great reversal. It takes a strong shock, because after yesterday's events the only thing we were able to do was to get published on the headlines of international press because of the unsuccessful government actions and the subsequent protests."