(Bloomberg) -- Greece plans to take steps to ease electricity bills in August after a recent rise in wholesale power prices.
“We have to deal with a temporary distortion of the European regional European electricity market,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with the SKAI TV network on Tuesday. The government plans to impose a one-off tax on the July and August surplus profits of power producers who use natural gas.
The proceeds will be used to subsidize consumers’ electricity bills in August, Mitsotakis said. The way prices are going now, he explained, citizens will “see a sharp increase in electricity prices” next month.
The decision follows a jump in the wholesale electricity prices. July and August normally see power demand peak in Greece as people turn on their air-conditioning units to fight soaring temperatures. Greece has experienced a constant heat wave this summer with temperatures exceeding 40C.
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