ZAGREB, April 17, 2019 - The Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (NHS) on Wednesday said that this year's Easter hamper will be more expensive despite the reduced VAT rate on certain items.
The NHS has calculated the cost of three Easter hampers - a modest one, worth 703 kuna, which is 36 kuna more than last year, a medium-sized hamper of 1,225 kuna, up 1 kuna from last year, and a rich hamper, valued at 1,824 kuna or 109 kuna more than last year.
The contents of the hampers differ according to the type of meat and fish and whether they include certain food items such as cakes, sweets, nibbles and beverages.
The rich hamper includes more expensive items such as cod, lamb and cooked ham, the medium quality hamper contains cheaper fish and meat such as whiting, pork and rolled ham, while the modest hamper contains cheaper pork cuts and the cheapest fish on the market, such as sardines.
The consumer basket indicates that on average the price of quality products has increased, the price of unprocessed food has remained fairly stable while the price of processed or semi-processed products has fallen slightly. With regard to basic foodstuffs, their prices have remained fairly stable and some have recorded a slight increase, the NHS said.
"As for average prices and the most frequent prices surveyed, we cannot say that they have fallen for products whose VAT was decreased by the latest tax changes," the union federation said in a press release.
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