Parents pay more in new school year
With children heading back to classes today for their first day of the new school year, consumer group KEPKA said parents must pay up to 10 percent more than last year for basic school items. KEPKA said price hikes for items required by primary school children will set back families between 24.14 and 166.16 euros compared with 21.87 to 157.51 euros in 2007. Secondary school students will have to pay between 27.33 and 211.33 euros for their needs versus 25.25 to 210.64 euros last year. These figures do not include goods of the more expensive brands, for which prices can be considerably higher. The price of a regular exercise book can cost 0.99 euros while its more fashionable equivalent can be priced at 4.41 euros. However, data collected by the Development Ministry tell a different story, as the government believes that prices have remained steady over the past year. A price hike of up to 10.3 percent in just one year is a sharp increase when considering Greece’s annual rate of inflation, which is moving ahead at an annual pace of just under 5 percent. The Development Ministry has called on business leaders to try to put off price hikes until later in the year, in a bid to curtail Greece’s inflation, which is almost one full percentage point above the eurozone average.
