Funds offsetting price surge not infinite

The impact of soaring energy prices cannot be continually compensated by the Greek economy, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned ministers on Tuesday, foreshadowing a “difficult” winter.

“Any steps we take will be measured so that temporary needs do not undermine national imperatives… If we have succeeded in supporting society so far, to the best of our ability, it is precisely because we exhaust the fiscal limits, without abolishing them,” the prime minister told a cabinet meeting. 

Greece, he stressed, has already done a lot in the field of supporting households and businesses and the government will continue to do what it can, but he made it clear, however, that “we will not give in to pressures beyond the maximum limits given to us by the General Accounting Office and the Ministry of Finance.”

“Resources are not inexhaustible and we must not forget that if the state today is able to support households and businesses with over 2 billion euros per month for their electricity bills, it is also due to prudent policies that have increased public wealth so that it can be returned to the citizens,” he said, 

Mitsotakis also raised the issue of the introduction of a cap on the wholesale price of natural gas and decoupling its price from that of electricity. He has been tabling this for many months, stressing that “what Europe is discussing today, Greece has been implementing at the national level since July with the mechanism that recovers profits from companies at source to return them as support to society.”

A detailed overview of the the Greek economy (exports, deposits, tourist receipts) and the lines of defense the government has held was also given by Finance Minister Christos Staikouras during the meeting. For his part, Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas gave a “European overview” of the energy crisis.

The general consensus was that the coming winter will be very difficult, but the government has ruled out the possibility of planned power cuts. Mitsotakis, however, stressed that as long as Moscow uses gas as a weapon, the crisis will deepen. He warned that “if something drastic is not done at the European level, then large countries risk collapse.” He concluded by predicting that the unfolding crisis “has features in common with a pandemic in terms of its potential consequences for the economy.”