On his TV and in the show “Today» with them Dimitris Oikonomou and Akis Pavlopoulos hosted the Minister of Development Takis Theodorikakoswho made reference to Christmas basket which starts ahead of the festive season.

As he said, the Christmas basket starts next Wednesday on December 11 and ends with the new year on January 3, while a week later the New Year’s basketwhich will also include toys for children. It is recalled that in the first there will be all the basic products, with the government focusing on having good quality and as affordable prices as possible, especially for those facing difficulties. “What we are interested in is reducing the cost of food and basic living items.

With regard to the criticism received by the government for the VAT reductionthe minister pointed out that “we have been putting strong pressure on the market recently to reduce the average profit, a policy that was combined with a sixfold increase in the limits of fines, which believe me is not an easy story”, while when asked about the fines he said:

“There were decisions by the competent General Directorate of the Trade Secretariat for businesses that made misleading discounts. These fines are paid normally. I believe that a government agency tasked with upholding the law and protecting the consumer should do its job without looking at names. With the policy we are implementing, we have succeeded in the last six months in food inflation at 0.8% based on official Eurostat data, when Germany has 3% and Belgium and the Netherlands over 6%, when the average of the euro zone is at 2.9%”.

“Mr. Androulakis takes us back 6 years, while he misses what happened since then”

In fact, making a special mention of supermarkets, he emphasized that inflation in November closed at 0.8% negative, below last year’s average, as there are reductions in 700 codes ranging from 5 to 20%. “If you reduce the VAT, you will lose revenue as a state, and the Ministry of Finance says that we do not have such margins,” Mr. Theodorikakos, while pointing his “arrows” at the president of PASOK, noting:

“Mr. Androulakis takes us back 6 years, while he misses what really happened: two years of closed economy worldwide due to the corona virus and two wars in our neighborhood. You know, at the moment there is the following mistake in Greece: everyone thinks that we are in one of the most normal times, but we are not at all. We are in a good place as a place and we have a high level of our economy, but the reality is that at the moment there are two wars, very serious changes are threatened in the USA that will shape a different level of economic relations between Europe and America, France is in a triple crisis . So these changes affect all economies.”

Mr. Theodorikakos emphasized that although prices have increased in the last four years by 25%-30%, at the same time the minimum wage has increased by 28% in the last three years, as well as the average wage. He even characterized high rents as the No. 1 problem for the high cost of living, which is why new interventions by the Government are needed to solve the problem and
that the banks also contribute from their side in order to help the citizens. “I think the banking system has to pick up a number of citizens’ costs,” he said.

Referring to the new production model, the minister emphasized “we are advancing the productive reconstruction of the economy, with an increase in the footprint of the industry, 600 million will be given. euros in the next two years through the development law, with priority to the border regions and Thessaly. Both for security reasons of our homeland, but also for the young children to stay in the region and to put an end to the flow towards the basin and the big cities of Greece”.

Finally, Mr. Theodorikakos said that the Government’s policy is patriotic, serious and there is no organized alternative proposal from the opposition and that “a productive Greece is our vision for the country in the coming years”. He even added that the political landscape in Greece is absolutely clear, that the statement by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that he will normally be a candidate at the end of the four-year term, stops any kind of scenario for the future and underlined that the ND parliamentary group is absolutely united.