Croatian Premier Slams Retailers for Greedy Conversion to Euros
(Bloomberg) -- Croatia’s prime minister threatened sanctions against retailers and service providers for what he said was a greedy approach to converting prices to euros after the Balkan nation adopted the common European currency at the start of this year.
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Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called on businesses to bring back retail prices to the levels of Dec. 31. He said there was no justification for price hikes of more than 0.4%, the equivalent of the rounding-up effect in switching prices from the kuna to the euro.
Regulators and ministries will monitor whether they comply, he said after local media reported that businesses raised prices in some instances as much as 20%. Croatia joined the euro zone on Jan. 1.
“What are we witnessing in the last few days is sheer profiteering and abuse of the conversion,” he told the cabinet on Thursday. “We will counter it with strong government measures.”
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Plenkovic didn’t specify those, but threatened to take special crisis-related subsidies from non-compliers.
The European Union’s newest member switched to the euro at a time of unusually high inflation. Consumer prices are estimated to have risen above 10% in 2022. Inflation is expected to slow this year, according to the central bank’s December forecast.
“Unfair price hikes hurt citizens’ living standard and boost inflation,” Plenkovic said. “Our main task is to protect consumers. We will combat the phenomenon of greed.”
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