Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis spoke to MEGA about the progress of the household basket.

Speaking on the morning show, the Minister of Development referred to the household basket, stressing that the profit for each household amounts to 1004 euros a year.

According to Mr. Georgiadis, in the first week of the operation of the measure the basket cost 125 euros, while 8 weeks later it now costs 107.5 euros, showing a decrease of 14%.

“There is no profiteering, prices have gone up due to inflation. The rise in inflation is not the result of profiteering, it is due to objective reasons”, said Adonis Georgiadis and added that the household basket failed to stop inflation.

Households are “buckling” under the weight of inflation and unable to meet their obligations due to rising prices. The basic salary may have increased, but prices have skyrocketed. According to Adonis Georgiadis, the government took a series of measures, such as the household basket, reducing insurance contributions and abolishing the solidarity contribution, in order to indirectly boost wages.

“The government strongly believes in reducing taxes. We have reduced 26 taxes and social security contributions. In the midst of inflation, we cannot do general tax reduction measures anymore, the Eurogroup and the markets do not allow it,” he said.

There are many complaints from citizens living in rural areas and on the islands, who report that they cannot use the household basket because there are no large supermarket chains in their area. Adonis Georgiadis noted that there are some islands that have not been covered by the household basket, which are few, while the measure has covered over 90% of the population.

“95% of the population has a household basket. I accept that some remote place may not have a large supermarket. We cannot go to every island and build a supermarket. The reason we have put supermarkets in the household basket and not the smaller chains is very simple. If I put the smaller shops in the ‘basket’ I will destroy them,” he said and then explained:

“We reward the efforts of supermarkets to lower prices. If I put the small shops, which cannot compete with the prices of the supermarkets, we will see that the mini markets will always be more expensive. Will it do them good or harm?” he said.