The implementation of the Household basket, which has now entered its 21st week, was successful and contributed, together with other measures such as the market pass, to the reduction of inflation, as the Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis stated in a press conference.

This measure is strengthened by periods with additional “baskets”, like the upcoming one “Godfather’s Basket” which makes its appearance on Wednesday March 29th until April 15th and concerns products related to Easter gifts (games, chocolate eggs, candles, etc.).

Yet on April 4 the “Easter Basket” will also be available which essentially replaces the “Lenten basket” and is created to meet the needs of consumers in food markets for their Easter table and will include lamb, buns, etc.

Mr. Georgiadis pointed out that this is a successful measure that had substantial results that would not have been possible with the reduction of VAT, since as he underlined “the reduction of VAT that remains the demand for the opposition does not bring a reduction in inflation”.

As explained by Sotiris Anagnostopoulos, Secretary General of Trade and Consumer Protectionin Spain the VAT on food fell to 0% from 4% or 5% depending on the food category in the months of January and February 2023, however food prices increased by 4.5% while in Greece where measures such as the Basket and the market pass the corresponding increase was 2.5%.

From the side of Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, responsible for Strategic Investments, Nikos Papathanasis, noted that the basket has already reached 60 items and is a “bulk to the point” tool. He emphasized that along with the basket there is also the Shopping Card, just like the e-consumer where one can see all the prices of the products and Greece is the only country in Europe that implements it. Regarding the Household basket, Mr. Papathanasis emphasized that it is extended until June.

In support of all the aforementioned, a study prepared by the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Philips University of Cyprus was presented on the subject: “Analysis of the Behavior of the Prices of the Household Basket Products and their Comparison with the ELSTAT Price Data for the Period January 2022 – January 2023”.

The specific research was done independently and was presented by the professor of EKPA, Nikolaos Ireiotis and the president of Philips University, Filippos Konstantinou.

According to the study, the value of the basket of all companies from the 1st week of its implementation to the 15th week has decreased for all companies, with the largest change for the period being -22.18%, while out of 12 companies, 11 had a decrease of over -7% and the remaining decrease -3.34%.

From the research it emerged that the operation of the basket was successful, that it is an effective tool in the hands of the state which works in favor of consumers and does not create problems in the operation of the free economy, while this research confirms and strengthens the results of the first one that had highlighted the positive contribution of the household basket to the consumer public.

According to the study, there is strong evidence that there was competition between companies in the value of Weekly Baskets they offered, which worked in favor of consumers. This happens without a competition problem having arisen as according to ELSTAT, the prices of the relevant index show an increase in the values ​​of the corresponding goods