More than 1,740 product codes are now covered by the National Price Reduction Initiative, which launched today with an average price cut of up to 9.5%, according to official data released by the Ministry of Development and the Independent Authority for Market Control and Consumer Protection, the body responsible for overseeing pricing and protecting consumers. The announcement updates the picture reported earlier in the day by the business outlet newmoney on the launch of the initiative, with the list expanding further and market participation now exceeding 100 supplier companies.

Also taking part in the initiative are 12 supermarket chains and three toy and school supplies chains. The process remains open, with new additions from businesses and further reductions from supermarket chains expected during the course of the week. As a result, the 1,740-plus codes represent today’s official count rather than necessarily the final scope of the initiative.

Reduced prices by category

Branded products

School items

Private label products

Meat products

“The national initiative to reduce prices on basic everyday consumer products and school items, ahead of the new school year, gives households and citizens struggling with the high cost of living some breathing room,” said Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos.

He added that the scheme covers 1,740 products with an average price reduction of 9.5%, consisting of food and basic necessities, and is the result of cooperation between the Ministry of Development, the Independent Authority for Consumer Protection and business bodies.

The “second” reduction

Particular interest surrounds the branded product codes, since this is where the additional participation of supermarkets is reflected. The initiative includes 875 branded codes, on which the average reduction from suppliers alone stands at 6.6%. With the added participation of supermarket chains, the average reduction rises to 9%. The overall range of reductions on branded codes runs from 5% to 44%.

This means the final reduction on the same branded code can vary from chain to chain, depending on the additional discount each supermarket chooses to apply.

Beyond branded products, the list includes 405 school items, where the average reduction reaches 12%, 360 private label products with an average reduction of 8%, and 100 meat codes with an average reduction of 7.5%.

For consumers, the reductions will be visible on the shelf through special labelling on participating products, as well as digitally through the “PosoKanei” price-comparison platform. According to Despina Tsangari, from midday today the platform will activate a dedicated section for the National Price Reduction Initiative, allowing consumers to see the products, businesses and reductions involved. For branded products, a range of reductions will be shown, since the final discount can vary from chain to chain depending on each supermarket’s additional participation.

Two strands

The Head of the Independent Authority for Market Control and Consumer Protection, Despina Tsangari, described today’s launch as an important step in the National Price Reduction Initiative.

“Not a theoretical step, but an organised action that is now reaching the shelf and will be visible to the consumer. The goal was, and remains, clear: to give real, practical relief to the Greek household’s shopping basket,” she said.

Tsangari placed today’s rollout within the second strand of the initiative. The first strand was activated in early July, following the withdrawal of the cap on gross profit margins, and concerned a freeze on price increases.

“The result was clearly reflected in the market. In July, food inflation stood at minus 0.4% compared with July 2025, a deceleration of 2.3 percentage points compared with June. For August, we already have very good indications from supermarkets pointing to another month of negative food inflation. We will confirm this during the current week, once the figures arrive from IELKA,” the retail research institute that tracks Greek supermarket pricing data, Tsangari noted.

The second strand, she explained, begins today and concerns the reduction of shelf prices “on specific, high-volume codes that Greek households buy every day.”

Until December

The National Price Reduction Initiative will run until the end of December 2026, either with the same codes or with new ones. This means not all the products currently on the list need to remain on it for the full four-month period, but the reductions will continue, with codes rotated where necessary.

The process, meanwhile, remains open. The Authority already expects new additions from businesses within the week, as well as further reductions from supermarket chains.

Theodorikakos linked the intervention to the wider effort to boost the disposable income of Greek families.

“This follows on from ongoing action to strengthen the disposable income of the Greek family, through measures such as support for productive investment that creates new, better jobs with better wages, which is what matters most, as well as continuous market interventions to make competition function more fairly. We stand by citizens through action, alongside society. And we are not complacent, since the two wars in our wider neighbourhood have brought huge uncertainty and driven up oil prices and inflation,” he said.

Tsangari, for her part, stressed that this intervention alone cannot resolve the overall problem of the high cost of living.

“In closing, the high cost of living cannot naturally be tackled with a single intervention; it requires many, ongoing ones. But this particular Initiative has substance: it leads to real, measurable and visible price reductions, helping to ease the strain on family budgets,” she said.