Greece is the first country to implement it according to the Minister of Development
“We want to see, every day, low prices on popular branded products”, as noted by the Minister of Development, Kostas Skrekas, speaking at the CEO Initiative 2023 conference, for the “Permanent Price Reduction” initiative.
Mr. Skrekas underlined: “We want businesses to make profits and grow, but also to respect the laws” while he emphasized that Greece is the first country to implement such an initiative to reduce prices where 53 companies with 660 codes already participate.
The revised goal is to reach over 1,000 as the minister said and noted: “Only Greece is the first to have achieved this. In Italy, Meloni has made an agreement with the suppliers for 500 codes for a period of three months. In France the agreement is for price stabilization in 4,000 codes”.
In most of the inflation according to the minister, it is due to objective conditions, i.e. an increase in production costs.
“However, on top of that, we also have greed inflation. When a company for various reasons finds an opportunity to increase the profit margin more than before the crisis” he said.
Regarding the legislation on the ceiling on the profit margin, the minister explained how they are calculated fines that have been imposed. As he said, in 2023 the gross profit margin should not exceed the gross profit margin in 2021. The difference in the margin is multiplied by the stock and the fine is imposed, adding that you apply the law, you obey it, you don’t question it.
He pointed out that it is possible for a liberal government to put in regulatory measures, recalling that this “is something we saw in 2008 in the crisis in the USA. The environment is so volatile, it takes time for the market to work and time does not exist. We also did it in the energy crisis, like the ceiling on the profit margin. However, as he said “we are forced to put in regulatory measures” and added that “they are not measures that can go far and will gradually begin to be withdrawn”.
Finally about the investment grade he emphasized that the way is opening for financing from funds and organizations that did not see our country while he added that the Greek economy is performing very well and the challenge is to continue this pace in the coming years in terms of sustainability.
