Greeks pay Swedish power rates

In Greece, the country of three bailouts and "social dividends," electricity costs the same as it does in Sweden, where the per capita gross domestic product is two-and-a-half times higher, as Greek power bills increased this year due to tax hikes the government imposed on power consumption.

Eurostat data showed on Thursday that Greek consumers paid 12.8 percent more for each kilowatt/hour in the first half of 2017 than in the same period in 2016, compared with a 0.5 percent annual reduction recorded in the European Union on average. Greece's was the second highest hike in H1 among EU members after the 22 percent increase in Cyprus (which has an isolated grid without interconnections).

Greeks continue to pay dearly for natural gas too, even though the price bears the lowest taxation in Europe. While gas rates in the EU declined 6.3 percent on average in the January...