economy

"On average, over the last three weeks, the total value of the Basket has fallen over 3%. If you remember I told you that from March we expect the de-escalation of inflation to start showing on the shelf and indeed, I want to thank the chains because in the Cart the difference is already evident in the last three weeks, meaning that those who regularly shop at the Cart will see the prices a little lower on some products and quite a bit lower on some other products than a few weeks ago.

Characteristically, upon entering, we saw with Mr. Papathanasis, flour 0.87. Flour, if you remember in our first trips to supermarkets, was consistently over 1 euro.

So, 0.87 is a big difference. We see the same in spaghetti. We see the same in pulses, where we fell below 1 euro in lentils, which for a while were considerably higher.

We are also looking at the other products here at "Masoutis" and at the other chains we will go to. We will go to "My Market", "Sklavenitis", and "A-B" to see how all the chains set their prices.

However, in general, you should know that we have a reversal of the flow of prices. From where we were going up, we are now steadily going down."

In response to a question about Lent prices, the minister said:

"In Lent we had a decrease if you remember at the beginning compared to last year. They have not dropped further than in the first week of Lent. But we are preparing to announce - perhaps this week - the special offer that will be made on cod for the 25th March, which is the traditional feast of this day and I do not hide from you that we are already in discussions with the meat market to see where the Easter goat and lamb will fluctuate this year. And there I believe that we will be able to with the measures we are taking to keep the prices down and help people buy for the Easter table as best as possible. In general, however, we are happy. The reverse course has begun."

Mr. Papathanasis stated:

"Indeed, this week too 95% of products are the same or lower in price. Obviously this de-escalation is now starting to take shape.

We notice that we have reduced prices and this is also visible during Lent. We are now awaiting the "Godfather's Basket" which will be announced soon with the products it will include and of course we are keeping a very close eye on the Easter market. We want to have better prices for the products that consumers usually buy at Easter."

Mr. Georgiadis also mentioned that next week a study will be presented at a press conference on the course of the prices of the products included in the Basket and how they affected the rest of the products.