<B>Europe has asked: what will it all look like when the cash dries up? Now we know the answer: Cyprus.</B>
By Richard Spencer, Nicosia6:50PM GMT 22 Mar 2013
Eurogeddon is sweeping the island. Its leaders are still working to avert catastrophe, but for residents, it had already struck.
Unlike a Hollywood film, there is no stampede out of town. No-one can afford to waste the petrol. The motorway that traverses the island connecting Paphos in the west to Limassol and Larnaka in the east and the capital Nicosia in the north is nearly deserted.
To say there was no Friday afternoon bustle would be an understatement. Every shop along a strip on Archbishop Makarios Avenue in central Nicosia reported to have had not a single customer all day. "People just don't have the money," said Georgia, a lingerie saleswoman. To say there was no Friday afternoon bustle would be an understatement. She is a living example of the spectre of financial disaster shadowing the continent. She trained as a kindergarten teacher in her home city in Greece - but kindergartens have shut in its austerity drive and she lost her job, before moving to Cyprus. Now, like most of Nicosia's residents, she has no idea what will happen next.
"I never expected this would happen," said Despo Pambaka, a customer services manager. "They are trying to take our lives, our money. This is not the Europe that we went into. Germany showed her real face."
Miss Pambaka shows the intractability of Cyprus's crisis and why Germany is so reluctant to come to its rescue. She said she had an outstanding mortgage of 200,000 euros. She is just 28, and her annual salary is 18,000 euros.
That mismatch of income and debts is Cyprus's problem. Her boss, Nitsa Sarka, a senior manager, who has worked for the bank for 39 years, said she had a mortgage of 230,000 euros despite a gross salary of just 4,000 euros a month. Significantly, her "provident fund" - the pension and social security fund - was held as security against the mortgage. It is hardly surprising that Cypriots are battening down the hatches. They are preparing for worse: even more stringent capital controls will also be in place by the time the banks reopen, under the new plans.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...streets-of-a-country-closed-for-business.html
By Richard Spencer, Nicosia6:50PM GMT 22 Mar 2013
Eurogeddon is sweeping the island. Its leaders are still working to avert catastrophe, but for residents, it had already struck.
Unlike a Hollywood film, there is no stampede out of town. No-one can afford to waste the petrol. The motorway that traverses the island connecting Paphos in the west to Limassol and Larnaka in the east and the capital Nicosia in the north is nearly deserted.
To say there was no Friday afternoon bustle would be an understatement. Every shop along a strip on Archbishop Makarios Avenue in central Nicosia reported to have had not a single customer all day. "People just don't have the money," said Georgia, a lingerie saleswoman. To say there was no Friday afternoon bustle would be an understatement. She is a living example of the spectre of financial disaster shadowing the continent. She trained as a kindergarten teacher in her home city in Greece - but kindergartens have shut in its austerity drive and she lost her job, before moving to Cyprus. Now, like most of Nicosia's residents, she has no idea what will happen next.
"I never expected this would happen," said Despo Pambaka, a customer services manager. "They are trying to take our lives, our money. This is not the Europe that we went into. Germany showed her real face."
Miss Pambaka shows the intractability of Cyprus's crisis and why Germany is so reluctant to come to its rescue. She said she had an outstanding mortgage of 200,000 euros. She is just 28, and her annual salary is 18,000 euros.
That mismatch of income and debts is Cyprus's problem. Her boss, Nitsa Sarka, a senior manager, who has worked for the bank for 39 years, said she had a mortgage of 230,000 euros despite a gross salary of just 4,000 euros a month. Significantly, her "provident fund" - the pension and social security fund - was held as security against the mortgage. It is hardly surprising that Cypriots are battening down the hatches. They are preparing for worse: even more stringent capital controls will also be in place by the time the banks reopen, under the new plans.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...streets-of-a-country-closed-for-business.html