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 Factory owner Snejana Zachariou explains buyers of her goods are
exclusively Greek. She will sit down with one of them on Monday to
try to work out how she can receive payment for a pile of orders if
Greek banks remain shut and capital controls stay in place.
Her plight is an example of how vulnerable the former Communist
countries in central and eastern Europe that neighbor Greece are to
the crisis. The pain could worsen if Greeks reject international
creditors' demands in a referendum on Sunday. "I do not know whether
I can manage, whether there will be money, because this business is
no longer very profitable to allow us to build up cash reserves,"
said Zachariou, whose husband is a Greek boat captain. "Maybe we
will survive for one month to pay something but after that, if money
does not come it will be very difficult."
"And that is why I worry now very much for my people, because they
have families, they have loans to the banks. If they cannot pay
their loans, they will have problems too."
Countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia are particularly
exposed to the fallout of the crisis as several of their banks are
Greek-owned and economic ties are close.
Greece is the third-largest investor in Bulgaria and is also
Bulgaria's fourth-largest export destination.
While their fate is tied to Greece, Zachariou said her workers are
divided on what to make of it all. Some feel pity for the Greeks
while others say it is time for their neighbors - who despite years
of austerity are still much better off than they are - to start
living within their means.
Sales of the company, which sews women's jackets and dresses, are
about 40,000 levs (20,454 euros) to 50,000 levs a month. The crisis
has started eating into revenues. Zachariou said a jacket that her
firm once made for Greek buyers for 9 euros ($10) only fetches 6
euros now.
"I listen to the women here, because I spend my time between work
and home and I do not have time for contact with other people,"
Zachariou said. "But they have different opinions. Some are speaking
with compassion for the people who are going through difficult
times. Others say: 'Until now they sang and danced' without knowing
what was coming to them."
NO LONGER THE BIG SHOTS
While Bulgarians travel to Greece for its beaches and ancient sites,
Greek tourists come to Bulgarian mountain resorts or on weekend
shopping trips for food and clothes, taking advantage of cheaper
prices.
Bulgarian migrant workers head south to pick olives, tobacco or
tomatoes. A cluster of textile firms like Felipe Z supply the Greek
market, either for domestic sales or exports to western Europe. In
Sandanski, a Bulgarian spa town near the border that touts its fine
air and thermal springs, dentists have shop signs in Greek to lure
those looking for cut-price healthcare.
But a combination of the debt crisis and an unfinished highway
connecting Sandanski to the border has seen revenues from Greek
tourists plummet in the last two years, according to Sandanski's
mayor Andon Totev.
"Now with the crisis, these visits ceased," Totev said. "Very, very
few people come here now. Before, especially on weekends and the
bigger eastern Orthodox holidays you would see 18-20 buses full of
tourists, now we hardly see any."
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Greek tourists used to bring in revenues of about 1.5 million euros
a month but that dropped to less than 100,000 euros, he said.
"Simply, the Greek tourists are not here," he said.
Greece's economy has been battered by years of cuts imposed by its
creditors in exchange for two bailouts. One in four Greeks is
jobless and by one estimate 59 businesses are closing daily. But
Bulgaria, which joined the European Union much later than Greece in
2007, is still the bloc's poorest member.
Bulgarians went through their own banking crisis in the mid nineties
and again last year, after the Balkan country's fourth-largest
lender collapsed.
"The situation in Greece, unfortunately, will have a negative impact
on Bulgaria as an investment destination too. Big investors look at
the region in general," said Veselin Iliev, director of
International Economic Cooperation at Bulgaria's leading industrial
association BIA.
"And our region is becoming quite unstable because of Greece. The
attractiveness of the whole region is decreasing."
For Kristina Mitova, who runs another small textile company in
Sandanski, Greece's problems look artificial.
"I don't believe there is a crisis," she said. "I travel to Greece
all the time, and I don't see any real difference."
Georgi Petrov, a 45-year-old sitting smoking on the steps of the
pawn shop where he works, was angry when he saw a young Greek woman
bemoaning austerity on TV, "while we have had to tighten our belts
for the past twenty years."
His parents' pension is worth about 200 levs ($114) a month, he
says, while the Greek average pension is 833 euros ($925).
"When we went to Greece, they were looking down on us," he said.
"When they came here, they were acting like the big shots. I think
they should pay for that."
(editing by Janet McBride)
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