Electricity subsidies continue

It is highly likely that the government will need to continue subsidizing electricity bills in September as natural gas prices rose toward the end of August, Environment and Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis said in a radio interview Friday.

The ministry is still waiting for electricity providers to announce their September prices, something that should be done by Sunday, at the latest, but, Skylakakis said, continuing subsidies will likely be necessary.

The August subsidy was 1.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, allowing most end-users to pay less than €0.15 per kWh. The ministry would like end-user prices to remain steady. The subsidy will be funded through a windfall tax, also dubbed the "temporary solidarity contribution," on refineries' additional profits.

"My hope is that there will be a subsequent [price] de-escalation due to the normalization of demand in...