Piraeus seen as bargain capital
The most expensive place to live in Greece is the Cretan city of Hania, followed by the Ionian islands of Corfu and Zakynthos, according to a survey by a consumer watchdog made public yesterday. The Consumer Institute (INKA) survey placed Piraeus, Levadia in central Greece and the northwestern Peloponnesian port city of Patras – the country’s third largest city – at the lowest end of the price range. INKA said variations in prices of 196 basic consumer goods monitored in the survey reached a high of 327 percent. However, in what INKA called «the basic shopping basket,» variations from shop to shop and from city to city were no higher than 93 percent. The watchdog said that prefectural capitals were generally 14-35 percent more expensive than provincial towns in the same area. Crete, the Ionian islands, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese topped the price scale, followed by the prefectures of Arta, Evritania, Kastoria, Fokida and Halkidiki. Athens and Thessaloniki were not included in the survey.
