Household Basket extended

The Development Ministry on Friday announced the extension until the end of this year of both the “Household Basket” measure and the ceiling on profit margins in food and fuel, both of which were due to expire.

If nothing else, this move confirms the information that in the data to be announced by the Hellenic Statistical Authority on July 7 for the General Consumer Price Index, food inflation will be maintained at high levels, possibly at a double-digit rate for another month, while this is also reflected in the estimates for a slow de-escalation of prices in specific product categories. 

Moreover, Friday’s interim report on monetary policy by the Bank of Greece mentioned that the de-escalation of food inflation is expected to be slow. In this light, Eurostat’s estimate for 2.7% inflation in Greece in June (from 2.8% in May) is only partially encouraging. Especially as continued price hikes are causing a significant decline in retail sales.

The extension of the measures will be institutionalized with a provision that will be included in one of the first bills that the government will submit to the new Parliament.

The provision will provide for the retroactive effect of the two measures, so as to cover the period between Saturday, July 1 and the passing of this new provision and its publication in the Government Gazette.

The retroactive effect is required to be provided mainly for the measure of the ceiling on the profit margins, because otherwise there is no legal basis for the imposition of fines by the competent audit services in case of detection of relevant violations.

It is noted that the only tool available to the government at the moment if it wanted the extension of the two measures to formally apply from today is the legislative act, as these are measures that have been established by law and cannot be extended simply by ministerial decision. Under no circumstances, however, would the government want to resort to such a “heavy” legislative tool from the first instance, competent sources pointed out to Kathimerini.