ECONOMY

Retail prices remain stubbornly high

Prices in the local retail market remain stubbornly high, according to the Bank of Greece, due to the lack of healthy competition, increases in direct and indirect taxes and the fat that is yet to be trimmed from the economy at a time when the economy has been stuck in recession for five years.

This is despite the fact that workers’ salaries and labor costs have been on the slide since 2010.

Although this year workers’ average nominal pretax salaries have dropped by an estimated 7 percent, and real salaries by 8.1 percent, the Consumer Price Index is expected to post a rise of 1.2 percent at the end of the year.

The increase in the prices of certain processed food products is due to the fact they are imported, while the drop recorded in food prices globally in 2011 has yet to be felt in Greece.

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