ATHENS – Greece is facing a global inflation and energy crisis, which the country has spent 1.75 billion dollars to mitigate, but which it cannot fully counteract, government spokesperson Yiannis Oikonomou said in statements to SKAI television on Sunday.

“We understand the difficulties, we are not standing idly buy nor have we ‘thrown in the towel’,” he added.

Oikonomou said that the measures taken must primarily have decisive impact for those that most need them, first of all, but also on the rest “in order to not disrupt the course of the economy” and the ability of the productive forces to react and move forward. Secondly, he said, the measures taken must not jeopardise fiscal stability, the execution of the budget and the economy’s growth.

“If you adopt measures that create a shortage in revenues this will have repercussions on the social state, education, public health, security and social benefits,” he added.

He stressed that the government has supported those that have the greatest need in the face of these huge inflationary pressures, with no one getting lower benefits than in 2019 and more people in work and earning a regular wage.

The spokesperson said the results of the government’s policies included a higher income for all citizens by 5 pct on average, no new taxes and further tax relief measures that “lift the taxation and social insurance storm of the previous period from the shoulders of Greek society.”

Regarding Ankara’s increasingly provocative behaviour, he said this was due to the “need to externalise the very difficult situation in Turkey, economically” but also Turkey’s nervousness over “Greece’s greater geostrategic and geopolitical imprint, the increased prestige of the prime minister and the country worldwide and the strengthening of Greece through the government’s armaments programme,” through purchases such as the Rafale fighter planes, frigates and the agreements with France and the USA.

Finally, he stressed the government’s determination to crack down on incidents of violence, such as the recent murder of a youth by football hooligans in Thessaloniki.