“There are findings of misleading discounts, they will be investigated and fines will be re-imposed” noted the Minister of Development, Kostas Skrekas, speaking this morning on the MEGA television station while reminding that the Christmas basket starts tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, December 15, the toy basket.

The minister spoke about the battle against punctuality and said in more detail: “From tomorrow the Christmas basket starts, which we give households the opportunity to have access to basic consumer goods and products that fill the festive table, for example all meats. We expect all prices to be the same or lower on these products. This year we also have lamb meat. The consumption of lamb meat is also common during the Christmas period, and approaches Easter consumption. On the festive table, the weight of meat is great, that’s why we included them in the household and Christmas basket. Today lamb prices range from 11.5 euros – 13 euros per kilo. For the holidays, we want the prices of lamb to decrease and fluctuate below 11 euros. Also, our goal is for the turkey price to be the same as last year. Of course, the Christmas basket also includes all the other items in the household’s basket, cheese products, etc.”

He added that, from December 15, the basket of games will also start “so that the children can have fun too”.

Referring to the course of inflation, the minister said “in November it seems that we had a de-escalation of inflation. But it does not mean that we have deflation… Accuracy cannot be dealt with overnight. The government is making efforts to reduce it, but we have a big battle to fight.”

Regarding the “imported accuracy”, Mr. Skrekas pointed out that, “all European countries have similar or higher inflation than Greece. Agri-food products have increased, raw materials, feed, livestock, energy have increased and we have a large increase in daily wages in farm jobs due to a lack of staff. In addition, from 2020 onwards, the annual average compensation due to natural disasters has also doubled. But we don’t stand idly by. We come with household baskets and permanently reduced prices.”

Especially for the initiative of the permanent price reduction, as he said, “it is important, because households are given the opportunity to buy 1286 products on the supermarket shelves at a reduced price for the next 6 months”.

Finally, the minister underlined that checks are intensive and continue for misleading discounts. “We have findings of misleading discounts, they will be checked and re-imposed fines”, concluded Mr. Skrekas.