Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday said that the rise in the cost of living was the issue that concerned Greek society above all others for entirely understandable reasons, replying to questions during a press conference on the topic "Economy, Development, Labour Market".
"We saw natural gas rates that were ten times higher than those we had two years ago. Consequently the international economy has to deal with a phenomenon that required measures at the level of central banks from all the advanced economies. Interest rates rose in order to restrain inflation and all countries resorted to using all options offered by their state budgets to support households and enterprises, especially the most vulnerable," Mitsotakis said.
He said noted that "prices are still high but the last ELSTAT report showed a slowing of the inflation rate". He pointed out that, throughout the imported inlflation crisis, the government responded with a series of measures that supported disposable income and which allowed it to neutralise a series of "inflation bombs", the most important of which were high electricity prices.
On profiteering, he noted that checks in the market were "not a simple matter" but that "for the first time we have laws and regulatory tools at our disposal that allow us to check the market with more efficiency compared with the past". He also said that there is a provision against profiteering which involves very heavy fines".