Greek columnist Giorgos Kraloglou questioned whether a recently announced agreement between the government and the market to curb high prices, sealed two days before his column was published, will survive rising energy costs. Kraloglou wrote that electricity and fuel prices had not yet responded to the deal.
Kraloglou said Greece's economy relies on small and medium-sized enterprises for 99% of all economic activity, and argued these businesses have long been operating at the limits of their production capacity. He said policymakers should not assume the market retains the flexibility it showed during past economic and energy crises.
Concerns over energy and imports
Kraloglou asked whether the government can guarantee even a short-term path for electricity prices and protect small and medium businesses from what he called a certain new rise in the cost of imported fuel and energy. He said the system cannot promise a permanent, measurable reduction in prices.
He also said businesses now import not only raw materials but also intermediate goods, as domestic production of those goods keeps shrinking. He questioned how policy for supporting small and medium enterprises would account for that shift.
Labor shortages and long-term orders
Kraloglou pointed to a persistent need to fill more than 100,000 job vacancies, asking how long that shortage would last and whether it would force wage changes that let small and medium firms secure long-term sales orders, both inside and outside Greece.
He said the agreement raises the question of whether the government will follow through with interventions across energy, tax and incentive policy, or continue to work against the promises made in deals like this one.
