ATHENS – Residents in Greece are seeing big price hikes for foods and other staples coming on top of electric bill hikes of some 189 percent – partially subsidized by the government – adding to the misery of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Industrial producer prices were the highest in December, 2021 in 21 months – marking the start of the Coronavirus crisis – and will bring higher costs coming soon, said Kathimerini in a report.

With the late January snowstorm and freezing weather affecting farmers and agricultural produce there will be higher costs for vegetables and other products as crops were damaged across the country.

Figures released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority showed the industrial producer price index rose 29.4% and data showed that the December 2021 hikes were a monthly increase of 5.7 percent.

“While in the past price lists suppliers sent to supermarkets used to stay the same for as long as three years, now they may change up to three times a year,” organized food retailers told the newspaper.

Industrial producer prices for the domestic market rose 30.4 percent on an annual basis, and for the foreign markets by 26 percent and the report said that in a 30-day period through mid-January 2022 that the biggest price jumps were seen for 20 basic goods including flour, cheese, cold cuts, butter and margarine, dairy cereal, pasta, coffee, sugar, olive oil, bread products, eggs, detergents and paper products.

In the weeks to come consumers should also expect further hikes in flour, cereal and pasta, as well as personal hygiene products, after seeing huge hikes recently for fruits and vegetables, the paper said.