A chill wind on the Akti Miaouli
I have referred to the effect of Greece’s current agonies on its maritime sector. Not least, the crisis’ impact threatens the continued viability of what cognoscenti (lawyers, Greek shipowners and parliamentarians) call Law 89.
This dandy ordinance was the brain child of some famous shipping tycoons in the 1950s., names available on request.
Essentially, it provides for a broad exemption from tax for a “Law 89” company, which is essentially one engaged in the shipping business.
Obviously, tax breaks for the elite, certainly including shipowners, will now come under scrutiny.
Greece’s current Pasok (Socialist Party) government is under growing pressure to soak the rich, and this includes repeal of Law 89 and other
so-called incentives.
Word on the Akti Miaouli (the famed street of maritime… Continue reading
Write no epitaph for greek shipping
To make his fateful appeal for emergency financial support, Greek Prime Minister Papandreou chose – unintentionally – a small island in the Dodecanese that was once the base for a significant Greek trading fleet. Continue reading
Greek shipping will face further scrutiny
Our agents in the Greek shipping community have, as our readers know, been warning us that the alleged bail-out package hatched last weekend wouldn’t work. Sure enough, by early Thursday, the rout had resumed: the yields on 10-year Greek sovereign bonds had risen to a near record 7.4 per cent. Continue reading
Greek shipping and the financial crisis
What do Greek shipowners make of their country’s current fiscal crisis, and how will it affect their willingness to invest? As we scratch our heads about what might happen to all that Chinese-built tonnage, whether or not we buy the story that lots of it has been or will be “cancelled” for- ever, a study of Greek shipping’s history may be instructive. Continue reading
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