Macedonia protects from Greek crisis

Skopje (Photo: Milica Stevuljević)

Macedonia has ordered its banks to withdraw money from Greek banks and imposed "preventive, temporary measures" to limit the outflow of capital to its southern neighbor.

The move by the Macedonian Central Bank followed Athens' decision to introduce capital controls and keep banks shut on Monday after international creditors refused to extend the eurozone country's bailout and citizens queued to withdraw cash.

The central bank in Skopje said the measures were "of a temporary character, introduced in order to address the danger of a possible more significant outflow of capital from Macedonia towards our southern neighbour, that may cause significant disruption to the balance of payments and to the stability of the financial system."

The bank also said the capital limits would apply only to future transactions, not to arrangements already in place between Macedonian and Greek entities, Reuters reports.

Banks in Macedonia are invited to "withdraw all deposits and loans from banks situated in Greece and their branches around the world."

The British agency underlines this is the first concrete step taken by one of Greece's immediate neighbors in a bid to protect itself from the financial turmoil in that country.