Cost of Bottled Water in Greece to Go Up on July 1

A small bottle of water will as of July 1st cost 60 cents increasing by 20% as Greek consumers face another hike in prices.

Increases will also apply to the cost of beer, juices, and soft drinks and come on top of a 30% expected rise in the price of chocolate and a 20% increase in coffee prices.

Market insiders are attributing the price hikes to the implementation of the “Deposit Return System – DRS” under which a new ‘green’ tax is applied to bottled products. As an incentive, customers will be refunded the increase through a voucher every time they return the bottles to the place of purchase.

The new price hikes will apply to aluminum packaging of up to 1 liter, glass bottles up to 1.3 liters, and plastic packaging up to 3 liters (beer, wine, water, soft drinks, milk, instant drinks).

As a result, the price for liquids of up to 0.5 liters in aluminum, glass, or plastic packaging will increase by 10 cents and by 15 cents for packages exceeding 0.5 liters.

This means that shoppers will have to pay 1.64 euros for a 1.5 liter of milk – up from 1.49 euros; 1.10 euros for a soft drink – up from 1 euros, 1.76 euros for a bottle of beer – up from 1.66 euros, and 60 cents for a small bottle of water – up from 50 cents.

Source: tovima.com