The President of the Cyprus Consumer Association, Marios Drousiotis, expressed the view that there will be further increases in fuel prices.
Drousiotis told philenews that already since yesterday, an importing company has announced an average increase of one and a half cents per litre for petrol and diesel.
“Without knowing 100% the possibilities of the state, as consumers, we wanted a delay in the abolition of the zero VAT on fuels,” he said.
Asked if there will be increases in basic goods due to the rise in fuel prices, he replied that if there are any, they will be unjustified, as the prices currently on the shelves of supermarkets were set when fuel prices were higher than they are today.
“The prices we have today are slightly lower than the previous fuel prices, so what justification is there for increasing prices, unless there are increases for other reasons,” he said.
At the same time, the President of the Consumer Association spoke of profiteering by a section of the business world, which will unjustifiably increase prices. “I have no doubt that there is a section of businesses that will once again look for excuses to raise the prices of products and services,” he stated.
Regarding the prices of products for the Easter table, Drousiotis said that they are expected to be set a week to ten days before Easter. “There may be a small increase in the price of lamb,” he noted.
Finally, when asked to comment on whether we will see a rise in prices in the catering sector, he said that he does not expect this, expressing the view that restaurants and taverns will maintain last year’s prices.
As he explained, some restaurant owners, in an effort to reduce their expenses as much as possible, have either reduced the quantity or variety of their dishes. “That is, if a meze used to have 20 dishes, now it has 17 or 18, not in all taverns, but such phenomena have been observed. It is an attempt to reduce costs because people are not dining out as much as before,” he concluded.
