The center-right government has announced a three-month profit cap effective Thursday for the food sector, supermarkets and petrol stations, to soften the impact of the Middle East crisis on Greek consumers.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said the cap would be imposed through fast-track legislation that will remain in effect \u201ctemporarily\u201d until June 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe legislative act \u2026 will be published by tonight, so that the measures can be immediately implemented,\u201d he said. \u201cNo government can control international developments\u2026 but we can and we are determined to control instances of profiteering.<\/p>\n
Hatzidakis also insisted that Greece faces no fuel supply disruptions. The country has seen fuel prices rise over the past few days amid the US and Israeli attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n
Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos said penalties would include maximum fines of \u20ac5 million, depending on the size of the company and the quantities involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very strict measure for the market, but it is also fair,\u201d Theodorikakos said. \u201cProfit is acceptable, profiteering is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials said the benchmark for the cap in the food sector would be average prices for last year. In the fuel market, petrol stations will be allowed a maximum profit of 12 cents per liter, with a slight increase for island outlets where transportation costs are higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly we cannot address primary price increases, but we are certainly sending the message that this financial upheaval cannot lead to instances of profiteering, which will make an existing problem worse,\u201d Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said earlier Wednesday, during a meeting with President Konstantinos Tassoulas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will remain constantly vigilant for further economic consequences of the crisis, naturally voicing the wish that what appears right now to be a big problem should not become even worse,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Greece is already in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis that started during the pandemic and intensified following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The across-the-board increase in housing costs, energy prices and basic consumer goods comes on the heels of debilitating income cuts and tax hikes imposed during Greece\u2019s 2010-2018 debt crisis.<\/p>\n
In his brief discussion with Tassoulas, Mitsotakis also spoke of the Foreign Ministry\u2019s complex operation to repatriate Greeks trapped due to flight bans triggered by the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
He furthermore voiced concern over the effects of the fighting on the stability of Lebanon, which has suffered massive attacks from neighboring Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are particularly concerned over Lebanon\u2019s stability,\u201d Mitsotakis said. \u201cWe have expressed strong disagreement with any protracted ground campaign in southern Lebanon, and voiced support for Lebanese authorities so that they may address the real security problems\u201d caused by the pro-Iran Hezbollah organization in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
This story has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The center-right government has announced a three-month profit cap effective Thursday for the food sector, supermarkets and petrol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,11829,60,156083,6738,1196,1650],"class_list":["post-340874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-konstantinos-tassoulas","tag-kyriakos-mitsotakis","tag-middle-east","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}