Capital Controls Gum Up Greek Businesses Struggling to Survive

For Alexandra Konstantopoulou, running a business in Greece today means spending hours pleading with her bank to deal with her import applications.

The 45-year-old, who runs a German bookstore tucked away in an Athens arcade next to the Bank of Greece, says that while her suppliers have been accommodating after the country imposed capital controls, she can’t say the same for her lender. Her bank manager told her he was working through a backlog of requests, pointing to a shelf overflowing with applications.