Greece: Selected Issues
IMF Staff Country Reports, January 24, 2024
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Greece: Selected Issues
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Bibliographic details
- Published: January 24, 2024
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400263941.002
Main focus
- The paper examines the impact of price increases on households in Greece and the effectiveness of policy support, using micro-level Household Budget Survey data.
- Timeframe of policy context: support to households and enterprises to cope with the high cost of living in 2022–2023.
Key findings
- Low-income households have faced higher loss of purchasing power.
- Households living in sparsely populated areas have faced higher loss of purchasing power.
- Households that rely more on secondary sources of income have faced higher loss of purchasing power.
- There is significant heterogeneity in purchasing-power loss even within narrowly defined household groups.
- Policy simulations indicate targeted support measures tailored to recipients’ needs would effectively mitigate vulnerable households’ income loss.
- Categorical programs that aim at a certain group of households without income criteria could alleviate cost-of-living pressures, but less effectively.
Policy implications and recommendations
- Prioritize targeted support measures tailored to household needs to more effectively mitigate income loss among vulnerable households.
- Recognize that categorical programs without income criteria can provide relief but are less efficient than targeted approaches.
- Use micro-level household consumption data (Household Budget Survey) to design and calibrate policy responses that account for heterogeneity across and within household groups.
Content in this bundle
- Greece: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 24/24; December 15, 2023