The fight against poverty and the support of the most vulnerable households is high on the agenda of the new government, which already from the first days of assuming its duties, proceeded to take a package of measures.

The path of food inflation has led the government to forecast for extension until the end of the year of the “Household Basket”but also of the measure of the maximum profit margin for companies that trade basic consumer products and fuels, in order to deal with unfair profiteering phenomena.

An additional and timeless weapon is the intensive controls across the entire range of the market, while at the same time the market pass extension. But also in terms of its prices electricityaid for vulnerable households and farmers was announced yesterday for July.

It is recalled that inflation in Greece fell to 2.7% in June, from 4.1% in May, according to Eurostat estimates, while in the Eurozone it stood at 5.5%, compared to 6.1% in May.

In June 2022, inflation had reached 11.6%. However, based on the main components of inflation in the euro area, food, alcohol and tobacco recorded the highest appreciations in June (11.7%, against 12.5% ​​in May), followed by non-energy industrial goods (5, 5%, compared to 5.8% in May), services (5.4%, compared to 5.0% in May) and energy (-5.6%, compared to -1.8% in May).

Petalas at APE-MPE: Consumers are constantly looking for new offers

“Whatever the state institutes for the good of consumers, all supermarket businesses will implement it,” the general director of the Greek Supermarket Association, Apostolos Petalas, points out in a statement to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.

As he notes, the “Household basket” initiative was launched last November with the aim of helping the state to help vulnerable citizens and was adopted by all businesses in the sector. “The measure has already completed eight months of existence and while it initially gained consumer interest, we are seeing it slowly fade as consumers are constantly looking for new offers in new product categories,” he adds.

According to Mr. Petalas, the decision of the Ministry of Development to continue the implementation of the measure until December 31, 2023 may not completely satisfy the consumers who are asked to choose only through specific product categories the price discounts.

“This is an intervention that distorts the market. Supermarket businesses always try to offer the best possible prices and offers to their consumers. With this provision, they are obliged to make most investments in discounts mainly in the specific product categories. This creates additional problems in the competition and the operation of the sector”, emphasizes Mr. Petalas.

He also notes that “anything that tries to regulate the market doesn’t give the industry chains the ability and freedom to do what they need to do to give their own consumer their own best deal across product categories.”

In any case, the businesses of the sector, according to Mr. Petalas, will continue to offer the consumer their quality products at the best possible prices, listening to the difficult and stressful situation they are experiencing.