In a post titled “Greek business exodus hits ‘epidemic’ proportions” website CNBC outlines the devastating effects capital controls on the country’s banking system have had on Greek businesses. A number of expatriates and experts point out that the flight of domestic companies abroad is taking ‘epidemic proportions’.

Greek-born Philip Ammerman, the co-founder of investment group Navigator Consulting Group moved his company to London from Athens in 2010. The piece refers to the opening of the Greek stock market Monday underlining that Greek business owners are forbidden tom transfer money abroad. Companies were already exiting Greece, even before the capital controls were imposed, but since then the number of companies moving outside Greece has skyrocketed.

The factors exacerbating this exodus, apart from the capital controls are a combination of deep economic depression, corruption, red tape and the uncertainty created by the political instability in the country. The post lists some of the larger companies that quit Greece such as Coca Cola Hellenic in 2012, FAGE, a well-known Greek yogurt producer who moved their headquarters to Brussels in 2103. Of 300 businesses surveyed by Endeavor between July 13 and 17 23 per cent planned to transfer their head offices abroad, while 13 per cent had already done so.