Workers demonstrate against soaring cost of living in central Athens on Saturday. AFP
Thousands of Greeks on February 26 joined union protests in several cities against a steep rise in the cost of living as the government vowed to boost emergency support for households.
In Athens, police said some 10,000 demonstrators led by Communist-affiliated union PAME gathered outside parliament to protest spiking inflation and a new labour law increasing working hour flexibility.
“We are a river of anger and outrage,” said steel unionist Panagiotis Doukas.
“We claim our right to a respectable life . . . we say a thunderous ‘no’ to the anti-popular policies that have torn apart our lives,” he said.
Greek inflation in January surged to 6.2 per cent in an annual comparison amid fears Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will further push up energy and food prices.
According to official data, electricity prices in January jumped by 56 per cent, fuel by 21.6 per cent and natural gas by a whopping 156 per cent.
The cost of living “could on average increase by over two per cent in 2022,” Panagiotis Petrakis, a professor of economics at the University of Athens, said.
The government has already spent €44 billion ($50 billion) in supporting businesses and low-income households during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Late on February 25, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said Greece would conclude an early repayment of bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and use the interest rate savings “to support households and businesses”.
The last tranche of IMF loans extended to Greece during the 2010-2018 debt crisis, worth €1.85 billion, is to be repaid by April, a source with knowledge of the issue told AFP last week.
Greece is aiming for 4.5-per-cent economic growth this year and expects additional revenue from the vital tourism industry.
Tourism accounts for around a quarter of the Greek economy. Receipts in 2021 stood at over €10 billion.
But Greece is also saddled with an unemployment rate of around 13 per cent, one of the highest in the eurozone, a legacy of the near-decade debt crisis.
The pandemic struck just as Greece was beginning to recover from the crisis that saw it lose a quarter of national output.
In 2020, the Greek economy shrank nine per cent.
People at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Greece are estimated at 28.9 per cent, just behind fellow EU laggards Bulgaria and Romania according to the Hellenic Anti-Poverty Network group.
The group found that in 2020, 44.6 per cent of households struggled to pay rent or mortgage instalments, while 16.7 per cent had inadequate heating.
According to Nikos Vettas, general director of the industry think-tank IOVE, the Greek government faces economic challenges despite a strong showing in tourism and exports in 2021.
The main opposition Syriza party is demanding additional social welfare after criticising the government for allocating €6 billion to a recent purchase of French warplanes and frigates.
