Greek PM pledges ‘safety net’ measures to counter inflation
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Saturday 21 measures designed to alleviate the impact of soaring inflation and the energy crisis on the nation’s households while also targeting growth.
During his annual economic policy speech from the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), Greece’s largest exhibition event, Mitsotakis pledged to give a 250-euro (dollar) subsidy to 2.3 million vulnerable citizens in December and increase the student housing allowance from 1,000 euros to 1,500 euros.
He also promised to increase the heating fuel subsidy to 300 million euros, widening criteria to include 1.3 million more households and announced a special intervention to reduce the cost of heating oil, as well grant farmers some 140 million euros in emergency subsidy.
“We are proceeding with a permanent set of measures, which will be effective from January. In this way, a safety net is developed for society and the foundations are laid for a beter future,” Mitsotakis said.
Greece has already announced about 8 billion euros in power subsidies since last year.
Mitsotakis also announced pension and minimum wage rises and lowered VAT in some sectors, puting the total cost of latest handouts at 5.5 billion euros.
Energy-linked price hikes have sparked greece’ s highest inflation in three decades.
Inflation remained in double-digits for a fith consecutive month, slipping to 11.4 per cent in August compared to 11.6 in July, according to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data announced Friday.
PENSIONS TO RISE: Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the minimum wage would rise again next year and pensions would increase for the first time since the financial crisis erupted more than a decade ago.
The eurozone’s most indebted country received more than 260 billion euros of international loans between 2010 and 2015 in return for tough austerity, which included a series of pension and wage cuts.
Ater emerging from its third bailout in 2018, Greece exited its creditors’ so-called enhanced surveillance last month, giving it greater freedom in implementing economic policy.
“Ater many years, pensions will increase for 1.5 million pensioners,” Mitsotakis said during his annual economic policy speech from the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Mitsotakis, a conservative who faces a parliamentary election in 2023, said the rise in pensions will be indexed to GDP growth and inflation.
The minimum wage which, the government raised to 713 euros ($716) a month earlier this year, would go up again in May, he added, without giving a new figure.
His government will also abolish a so-called solidarity levy on private and public sector workers, a legacy of Greece’s multi-year debt crisis, he said.
Mitsotakis also promised further funding to cushion the impact of the energy crisis and soaring inflation on the nation’s households.
Mitsotakis pledged to give a 250 euro subsidy to 2.3 million vulnerable citizens in December and increase the student housing allowance from 1,000 euros to 1,500 euros