“The money I now spend in the supermarket to buy three day’s worths of food for my family, last year was enough for an entire week’s worth of groceries,” Anna Petropoulou told DW. For the 49-year-old Greek mother of three, visiting the supermarket is full of unpleasant surprises as the cost of living soars. Together with her husband, Petropoulou earns fairly well by Greek standards, and the family lives in a condo. But the dramatic rise in food and fuel prices is forcing them to carefully watch their spending — it is a bit like a return of the 2010 financial crisis.
Today, a 500-gram bag of coffee costs at least €2 more than last year. Milk and yoghurt are twice as expense, most kinds of bread and eggs costs about 30% more. Even feta, a popular Greek cheese, is now €12 a kilo, that’s €3-4 euros more than six months ago. “I feel poor when I visit the supermarket,” Petropoulou said. While she thinks Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is doing a good job, she gets angry when he claims Greece is making economic progress. “Apparently, I am living in a different country,” she said.
