THOUSANDS of Greeks today 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 last month surged to 6.2% 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 last month jumped by 56%, fuel by 21.6% and natural gas by a whopping 156%.

The cost of living “could on average increase by over 2% in 2022”, Panagiotis Petrakis, a professor of economics at the University of Athens, told AFP.

The government has already spent €44 billion (RM208 billion) in supporting businesses and low-income households during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Late yesterday, 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 this week.

Greece is aiming for 4.5% 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.

Jobless rate 13%

But Greece is also saddled with an unemployment rate of around 13%, 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 9%.

People at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Greece are estimated at 28.9%, just behind fellow EU laggards Bulgaria and Romania, according to the Hellenic Anti-Poverty Network group.

The group found that in 2020, 44.6% of households struggled to pay rent or mortgage instalments, while 16.7% 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 last year.

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. – AFP, February 26, 2022.