Greece accuses multinationals of 'greedflation,' expands price controls to baby formula

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s center-right government announced price controls on baby formula Wednesday, accusing multinational suppliers of imposing unjustifiably high prices on the country’s consumers.

A 7% profit cap on formula will take effect in March and follows a series of similar initiatives over the past two years for basic items.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused major supermarket suppliers of taking advantage of high inflation to further hike prices.

“The battle to tame high prices and to impose more competition rules in favor of the consumer is a constant battle,” Mitsotakis told his ministers in a televised address.

“We are constantly deploying new policy tools until everyone – especially the multinational companies – understands that Greece is not a banana republic and that ‘greedflation’ cannot be tolerated.”

Inflation in countries using the shared euro currency increased to 2.9% in December after a seven-month decline, according to an official estimate, with the Greek rate swinging higher to 3.7%.

Greek authorities in recent months have imposed fines of up to 1 million euros on major international companies they said had violated government-imposed caps on profits.