(Finance) – With the arrival of the euro prices are flying in Croatia. Joined theEurozone starting from January 1, the country has been dealing with the surge in coins due to the adoption of the single currency. The food and services sectors were particularly affected by the increases. Increases deemed unjustified by the government, which has announced an intervention in the next few days.
Most of the increases are due to rounding which in many cases far exceed the logic of conversion, with price increases from 5 to 20 percent compared to prices prior to the introduction of the single European currency. For this reason, many traders, restaurateurs and even some supermarket chains have been accused by the press of having taken advantage of the currency exchange. The wrath of citizens has also exploded on social networks, who denounce among other things price hikes for bread and butter as much as 30%.
If the situation does not normalize the Prime Minister Andrey Plenkovic announced possible interventions by Friday accusing
“a part of the traders and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the transition from the Croatian kuna to the euro with this irresponsible behavior”. Plenkovic said the government has strong tools “that it will not hesitate to use”.
Several i measures to be studied by the government. These include targeted tax and levy hikes, the abolition of gas and energy subsidies or even the freezing of prices for hundreds of items at December levels.
In addition to joining the Eurozone, Croatia – the last country to join the EU in July 2013 – also joined the Schengen zone of free movement in Europe.