Massive price increases make Croats furious - "Early warnings were there..."

Massive price increases make Croats furious - "Early warnings were there..."

In today’s meeting with the relevant ministers, he announced a prompt reaction and inspections. Plenković pointed out that the introduction of the Euro is not the reason for the increase in the prices of goods and services. EVRO HR is the official government website of the government, with all relevant information related to consumer protection, stating that the consumer must not be in a less favorable financial position than he would have been if the Euro had not been introduced, Index.hr reports.

"As in all other situations, during the double reporting transition period, it is necessary to correctly and accurately apply the rules of recalculation and rounding, which means that the price must be recalculated and stated correctly, i.e., the informational calculation in the currency that was or will be official must correctly reflect the price that is charged to the consumer and must not be rounded up or down," the website states.

It is added that the ratio of prices expressed in HRK and Euros must correspond to a mathematical operation, that is, to the rules of conversion and rounding by applying a fixed conversion rate in the full numerical amount. Also, the website states that this specifically means that from the beginning of the period of mandatory dual reporting until the day of the introduction of the Euro for the purpose of informing consumers, the price charged in HRK must be recalculated and displayed in euros as well, with the correct application of the fixed conversion rate and rules for recalculation and rounding.

"The key principle of the introduction of the Euro is consumer protection, and the consumer must not be in a financially less favorable position than he would be if the Euro had not been introduced. The introduction of the Euro alone must not be, nor is it a justified reason for increasing product prices," concludes the EURO HR page.

Massive price increases cause numerous complaints

People complain about massive price increases. Social networks are boiling with various examples of huge price increases after the introduction of the Euro, be it for shops, various services such as hair salons, or parking fees, Index writes.

Most of the complaints refer to the rounding of prices to a round number of Euros. For example, if something cost HRK 13, it is possible that someone "rounded" it to two euros, which is a significant price increase.

Yesterday, a group was opened on Reddit where hundreds of people write about price increases and give numerous examples. "Men's haircut at a local hairdresser HRK 60. I came a few days ago. He says I'll round up to 10 euros to make it easier for you and us," as stated by the user. "Coffee with milk in the cafe where I've been going all my life increased from 12 to 15 HRK," another user says.

"We have information from the field, people are calling and complaining. The highest price increases are related to coffee prices which increased the most. We received a report that in one place coffee got two HRK more expensive due to this rounding of prices," said the president of the Association for Consumer Protection Ana Knežević.

"This happened in all the countries that entered the Eurozone, we saw it in the example of Slovenia, Austria, Italy... We warned that Croatia would not be an exception. And in the mentioned countries, the worst was with coffee prices. Here we can see that prices increase in bakeries as well, that's where we also get reports from," she says.