“We are not a Banana Republic,” Greek prime Minister said vowed to take up fight “against multinational and national companies that sell their products at much higher prices than elsewhere.”
In an interview with ANT1 TV late on Wednesday and speaking about the high prices in the food and essentials in the market, Mitsotakis acknowledged that prices are still high, but argued that “we are seeing the beginning of the end in terms of rising inflation.”
As for olive oil prices that skyrocket week by week, the Premier blamed a “global phenomenon,” and once again dismissed the prospect of a VAT cut and he highlighted government actions to tame high prices.
He also claimed that when prices fall, income increases will remain.
With the controls on the market not bringing any satisfactory result, the prime minister chose to send a “message” to companies and multinationals that are making a profiteering.
“If some people think that Greece is a banana republic and they sell the same products at different prices, they are in deep trouble. If necessary, we’ll deal out with them and we;ll do it. Be patient and you will see,” Mitsotakis warned.
He stressed that he is “interested in the progress of the economy having an impact on each and every one, i.e. better salaries in both the private and public sectors”.
PS Following Mitsotakis’s warning On Wednesday night, I was not able to find the usual 1-liter olive oil bottle I order via the website of a big supermarket on Thursday morning…
On social media posts, Greeks wrote that some super markets in northern Greece have imposed a cap of up to 3 bottles of olive oil.
And to think that they still sell oil pressed last year, when it was almost half of today’s price.
My wife and I were born in Greece and left with our parents as very young children to come to Australia.
We have a small house near Nea Moudiana and try to come every summer to Greece.
I can confirm from personal experience, Greek people pay MORE for many products PETROL, beds at IKEA
and tools at PRAKTIKER are all more expensive.
About OLIVE OIL, the Greek people are in a no win situation because they pay more for oil pressed a year ago
because future stock will cost more. If future stock decreases in price, then the pay more now because the current stock was more expensive when pressed last year.
I believe, some form of Government Regulation is necessary which can include :
. incentives for people to buy Electric Vehicles. EV
. incentives to buy solar panels for roofs of houses to provide FREE electricity which can also charge EVs.
. Provide better quality drinking water so people do not have to buy plastic bottles with water.
. Encourage Recycling, to save money and to save Greece.
“incentives for people to buy Electric Vehicles. EV”
Hmmm, and thus encourage the continuation of child labour regarding cobalt and lithium mining?
not to mention high price electrical consumption “because Hamas”
Excellent suggestions. Problem is all will “annoy” some of the government’s financial backers, who must be appeased at all costs.
you might like to see the docu/film Planet of the Humans, to enrich your opinion
“We are not a Banana Republic,”
Apart from not exporting bananas, I think we are one! (Home grown Cretan bananas are wonderful)
“A small country, especially one in Central America, that is dependent on a single export commodity (traditionally bananas) and that has a corrupt, dictatorial government.”
PS – also we are not in Central America.
regarding the price of olive oil, yes, of course oil being sold now was pressed last year! and who would be a fool to sell last year’s oil cheap knowing that in a few weeks when the harvest begins, the new oil will be ten bucks or more a liter? Consider that ten years ago or so oil was 3.00 and 3.50 a liter – thats the price you would get paid at the press if you sold your oil as a producer. This was because the market was flooded by cheap industrial-agribusiness oil mainly from spain. At those prices small producers, and most of greece, simply could not cover expenses in production. I know our family and everyone else in our village, did not sell any oil in those years. We harvested enough for our own families use and whatever we could do just ourselves, and didn’t really strain to harvest the more difficult trees, etc, at all. In those years a lot of people also stopped spending the expense on long term maintenance like pruning and fixing terrace walls and so on- the cost was hard to justify. There was no point in hiring any outside help at those prices. Even when the price went up to 5 and then last year 7 bucks, that was just barely breaking even. Ten bucks sounds expensive but thats actually a price where a small producer can actually make a bit of a profit! Again i am talking about the price the producer gets paid at the press (the press either takes a percentage of the oil, or the cash equivalent at the posted price, when you take olives for pressing, and the press typically will buy more at the same price).
also consider that , all local pride aside, greek oil does actually tend to be of better quality than the mass-produced mass-market stuff from mostly spain and italy, and it does get a higher price in foriegn markets (ever look at the shelves of a supermarket up in europe? several years ago i could say, greek oil was 15-20 bucks a liter but on the same shelf you did also have cheaper oil at 8-10 bucks , from spain or italy. no idea what prices are like up there now).
You can do everyone a favor yourself included by finding a small owner-producer and buying your oil directly from him. You might have to buy a whole can (usually the 17 liter tenekedes) at once, but the stuff lasts a long time (at home we are still eating the oil from 2019! yes when the ’22 stuff was selling for 7 bucks we sold it at the press) and you’ll be cutting out the middleman and youll be much more sure of getting a good quality of oil! The big companies that buy and mass-market oil to supermarket chains etc, you dont think they are blending it and selling not just 1 year old but maybe even 5 year old oil? that’s how they can make a profit! so go direct to the small producer. this whole country is just about right next door to someone who has olive trees!
Bravo to everything you’ve said.
I make my own Cretan Organic oil – for me it’s the best in the world.
There are incentives to buy solar panels, battery storage and EVs.
For battery storage the incentive is 100 % or 90 % of the price. For the panels and charging/inverter system the subsidy ranges from 20 % to 65 %. The system has to include battery storage as DEH have problems balancing the grid if there is no local storage. As with most government subsidy schemes there is a limit on the total cost and it is first-come-first-served. See this KTG article: https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2023/05/02/greece-subsidy-photovoltaic-on-the-roof-platform-open/
In the case of electric vehicles the subsidies are:
for car/light commercial vehicle: Fully electric cars up to €6,000 for a list price up to €50,000
for e-scooter: 20% of purchase price up to €800.
for e-bike: 40% of purchase price up to €800.
Scrappage or swap fees: €1,000 for scrapping or trading in an old car.
subsidy amount for e-cars has been already used.
…and what happens when subsidies finish???