Croatia adopted the euro on 1 January. Since then, citizens have complained about suddenly more expensive groceries, visits to cafes and hairdressers. The government of the country wants to counter this with controls.
The higher prices are mainly due to rounding during the currency conversion. “Some companies have clearly used the changeover to the euro to raise prices unjustly. There is no reason or justification for that,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday. However, it is “pure profit”.
Reinforced controls
He asked all affected establishments to return their prices to December 31 levels. In addition, the Prime Minister instructed the responsible authorities to carry out more checks to reveal unfair practices. To this end, the Tax and Customs Administration, Customs, ministries and the central bank should be involved. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will monitor prices to enable citizens to compare prices, the ministry said.
Over the past two days, more than 300 checks have already been carried out at dealers and service providers. Retail prices have risen by three to nineteen percent, said the head of the authority. Examples are chocolate, pastries, beer and coffee. In gastronomy, price increases ranged from ten to even 80 percent. The trade regulator has already responded to numerous complaints about price increases after the introduction of the euro on January 1.
Source: Krone
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