STORY: Rising energy prices are eroding consumers’ purchasing power and driving up costs for businesses. The third relief package of at least 65 billion euros decided on Sunday is intended to support the population as well as companies. It received approval, but also plenty of criticism from various quarters. Hubertus Bardt, Managing Director of the Institute of German Economics, gave an overall rather cautious assessment on Monday. “It’s a big package that contains a lot that was already planned. Only some of them are really additional new measures. Some of them help consumers and some help companies. But of course it doesn’t change anything that we as a society, as an economy, have to bear these huge additional costs.” Bardt explained the idea of skimming off so-called random profits, which should take effect with the electricity producers: “There are many systems that are currently running – renewable systems, coal-fired power plants, etc. – that do not have higher costs, but still benefit from the benefit from higher electricity prices and therefore make more profit than they would otherwise have made. Now they want to take part of this profit and thus relieve electricity customers. Exactly how that works, whether it works exactly and to what extent it works, that’s all completely open.” The economic expert named the reactions of companies to the “huge cost burdens” such as the shutdown of production or investments as an economic problem. Government aid programs could start here. “The other problem is the households, the private households. Consumer confidence is in the basement. And the concern is that larger purchases are now being postponed. And that would then also make the recession more likely. The bottom line is that it can mitigate, but it will there will be no turnaround in the economy. We won’t get an upswing just because we have this relief package now.” A recession occurs when economic output shrinks for at least two quarters in a row.