Hard-hit firms grind to a halt

The ANTYMET car-recycling company northwest of Athens was already down on its luck after six years of one of the worst economic crises of modern times. Then the Greek government closed the banks.

"Every day is like Sunday," said Alexandros Vougiouklakis, standing among stacked rows of rusting cars in the industrial district of Aspropyrgos. "There could not have been a steeper fall in business."

Four days after banks were closed to halt a run on deposits by fearful Greeks, an economy already ravaged by recession, unemployment and falling wages and pensions is gradually being starved of cash and credit lines.