Five weeks of capital controls in Greece have plunged the country’s manufacturers into crisis.
A collapse in new orders and supply problems caused by restrictions on bank transfers and withdrawals sent factory activity plunging to its lowest level on record last month. Markit’s purchasing managers’ index dived from 46.9 to 30.2, where any reading below 50 indicates contraction.
It was the lowest reading since Markit began compiling the data in 1999 and the steepest single-month fall.
The unprecedented decline underscored the damage done by the capital controls imposed on June 29 and a six-month stand-off between Syriza, the left-wing ruling party in Athens, and Greece’s eurozone creditors over the terms of its bailout.
The country has fallen back into recession, having only just emerged from