GREECE: A Greek consumer group called yesterday for a four-day boycott of all fresh produce to protest against sharp price hikes, partly caused by the introduction of the euro.
The country's main consumer action group, INKA, said it wanted all consumers to stop buying fruit and vegetables for four days next week after prices shot up by at least 10 per cent and by as much as 20 per cent.
"The boycott will last from Monday to Thursday and it will concern fruits and vegetables, the prices of which have risen so much that they are unacceptable for Greek consumers," an INKA spokeswoman said.
The group claimed victory 10 days ago when a one-day boycott of stores and markets recorded a 67 per cent drop in food sales and a 76 per cent drop in sales at retail shops. This first action, indirectly supported by socialist Prime Minister Mr Costas Simitis, was called after a sharp price increase triggered by the currency conversion at the start of this year.
About 55.5 per cent of people surveyed by the pro-government newspaper To Vima blamed company price hikes for the rise in prices, while 36.8 per cent blamed the euro, and 30.3 per cent blamed the government.
INKA officials said there had also been many complaints by foreign tourists of higher prices, with a bottle of water that once cost 100 drachmas now selling for one euro - 3.5 times more than before the euro was introduced. Greece's headline consumer inflation rose to 3.5 per cent year-on-year in August, from 3.3 per cent a month earlier, among the highest in the euro zone.
Economists have consistently pointed to higher prices for fresh produce as one of the reasons for stubbornly high inflation, driven by a spate of bad weather and upward rounding off during conversion to the euro. - (Reuters)