By L. Karageorgos
Coastal shipping traffic was up by 6.9 percent over the period between June and Aug. 18, 2016, the peak of the annual holiday and tourism season in Greece, based on figures released by the relevant ministry.
This season’s improved results are due to the lessening effects of still imposed, but recently loosened capital controls, which were slapped on Greek banks’ deposits in late 2015 in order to avoid a bank run in the wake of a hastily announced referendum at the time.
Conversely, the summer of 2015 also witnessed the height of the refugee crisis, whereby thousands of Mideast nationals were off-loaded to a handful of Greek isles from neighboring Turkey. Tens of thousands of these people used the regular ferry boat routes to reach mainland Greece, thus boosting traffic in 2015.
