economy

In particular, the "godparents' basket" will include 12 categories of products, such as candles, toys and chocolate eggs.

In particular, the two new festive "baskets" will concern supermarkets and toy stores. The "godfather's basket" of toys and candles will be implemented in toy stores from March 29th to April 15th.

Game companies with an annual turnover of more than 1,000,000 euros are expected to participate in this compulsorily, as well as those with a smaller turnover who wish to participate voluntarily.

Each store can choose to include one or more categories of products in the basket of godparents so that the measure can be applied by small stores as well.

At the same time, the ministry is preparing an intervention to reduce the price of lamb, having already started discussions with the merchants of Varvakeiou Agora.

As the Minister of Development Adonis Georgiadis stated, the tools chosen by the government to reduce inflation such as the basket, led to a reduction by one unit in February compared to January, while in Spain which chose to reduce or abolish VAT the same period there was an increase in inflation by 1.2%.

The "godfathers' basket"

The "godfather's basket" will be implemented in game stores.

This is an initiative similar to the "Santa Claus basket" that was valid during the Christmas period and is expected to arrive a little earlier than the "Easter basket", specifically on March 29, in order to facilitate the purchases of godparents to their godparents.

Game companies with an annual turnover of more than 1,000,000 euros will participate compulsorily, as well as those with a smaller turnover who wish to participate voluntarily. The toy categories that will be formed by the relevant ministry and from which each business will choose each week the products that will make up its catalogs, are expected to be similar to those at Christmas. However, candles with toys will also be added.

From April 4, the "Easter Basket" will also be available

Even on April 4, the "Easter basket" will be available, which essentially replaces the "Lent basket" and is created to meet the needs of consumers in food markets for their Easter table and will include lamb, buns, etc.

Mr. Georgiadis pointed out that this is a successful measure that had substantial results that would not have been possible with the reduction of VAT, since as he underlined "the reduction of VAT that remains the demand for the opposition does not bring a reduction in inflation".

As explained by Sotiris Anagnostopoulos, Secretary General of Trade and Consumer Protection, in Spain the VAT on food fell to 0% from 4% or 5% depending on the food category in the months of January and February 2023, however there was an increase in food prices 4.5% while in Greece where measures such as the Basket and the market pass were implemented the corresponding increase was 2.5%.

For his part, the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, in charge of Strategic Investments, Nikos Papathanasis, noted that the basket has already reached 60 items and is a "bulk for precision" tool. He emphasized that along with the basket there is also the Shopping Card, just like the e-consumer where one can see all the prices of the products and Greece is the only country in Europe that implements it. Regarding the Household basket, Mr. Papathanasis emphasized that it is extended until June.

In support of all the aforementioned, a study prepared by the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Philips University of Cyprus was presented on the subject: "Analysis of the Behavior of the Prices of the Household Basket Products and their Comparison with the ELSTAT Price Data for the Period January 2022 - January 2023".

The specific research was done independently and was presented by the professor of EKPA, Nikolaos Ireiotis and the president of Philips University, Filippos Konstantinou.

According to the study, the value of the basket of all companies from the 1st week of its implementation to the 15th week has decreased for all companies, with the largest change for the period being -22.18%, while out of 12 companies, 11 had a decrease of over -7% and the remaining decrease -3.34%.

From the research it emerged that the operation of the basket was successful, that it is an effective tool in the hands of the state which works in favor of consumers and does not create problems in the operation of the free economy, while this research confirms and strengthens the results of the first one that had highlighted the positive contribution of the household basket to the consumer public.

According to the study, there is strong evidence that there was competition between companies in the value of Weekly Baskets they offered, which worked in favor of consumers. This happens without a competition problem having arisen as according to ELSTAT, the prices of the relevant index show an increase in the values of the corresponding goods.