Greek NGO warns worsening food, energy poverty amid rocketing prices

The report shows that 64 per cent of Greek households cut down on other needs and 36 per cent cut down on some of their basic needs in order to manage amid the energy crisis.

ATHENS, Oct. 24 The rising cost of energy has placed a heavy burden on many Greeks, with every other household struggling to pay for their energy needs lately, according to the 2022 edition of the annual Poverty Watch report released here by the Hellenic Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN Greece).

The independent organization, a member of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), calls for decisive measures on national and European levels to tackle energy poverty, such as setting prices at source based on the real cost of production, Spyros Psychas, a member of the Board of EAPN-Greece, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The report shows that 64 per cent of Greek households cut down on other needs and 36 per cent cut down on some of their basic needs in order to manage amid the energy crisis.

But for Psychas and many Greeks, fuel, natural gas and electricity subsidies are not enough.

In a recent survey conducted by the polling firm politic.gr, 55 per cent of respondents called for a reduction in value-added tax (VAT) and other taxes, and just 6 per cent said that the government should continue supporting society with subsidies.

A society already weakened by a decade of the financial crisis, which was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and now the energy crisis, needs more drastic policies, Psychas said.

"Over 29 per cent of the population is poor. And when we say poor, we mean that those people lack basic goods, have low income and live in a low-employment household," he said, citing Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) figures released in July 2021.

The Poverty Watch research comprises data from ELSTAT, surveys from various institutes and from dozens of organizations offering support to socially excluded groups, and testimonies of people experiencing poverty, he explained. They all show that poverty is a chronic problem for a large part of Greek society that has been deepening again in the past three years.

The risk of poverty and exclusion in Greece was 27.7 per cent in 2010 when the debt crisis broke out. It peaked at 36 per cent in 2014 and climbed to 28.9 per cent in 2020, according to ELSTAT.

Regarding energy poverty, four in ten households heat only one part of their residence and turn the heat off even if the temperature is lower than 18 degrees Celsius there, the report noted, citing findings of a research released in June by the Nicos Poulantzas Institute, an Athens-based think tank.

Loss of real income of Greek households due to the energy crisis will be over 10 per cent in 2022, the report added, citing an analysis of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"With what is happening in Europe today I think this winter will be worse," Psychas said.

"Our research into what our organizations recorded showed that a percentage of households cut back on heating to cook or cut back on cooking to keep warm, which means that we are even heading to food poverty and not just energy poverty," he noted. (1 euro= 0.99 U.S. dollar)

(Xinhua)