April the 3rd, 2023 - Despite the slowing down of inflation across the country for the fourth consecutive month now, more Croatian price hikes appear to be on the horizon.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, after a long time of everything seeming to cost the earth, it has finally been confirmed (at least according to the first estimate of the CBS for March), that inflation is continuing to slow down. That said, the prices of goods and services for personal consumption, measured by the consumer price index, are 10.6% higher on average on an annual basis, and 0.8% higher now than they were back in February.
However, compared to last March, food, drink and tobacco are still the most expensive items - they are 15% more expensive on an annual basis, and although the government and ministers still claim that there is no justification for most of the Croatian price hikes we've been seeing for some time now, some in the trade sector still listed more new prices recently, and these include the manufacturers and suppliers of detergents, cosmetics, pasta, chocolate, and so on.
Some prices have been in effect since March, writes Vecernji list, but some are still waiting for their old stocks to be used up/sold first, as was explained by the leaders of the HGK and HUP merchants' associations, Ivica Katavic and Martin Evacic, as well as the KTC and NTL retail chains.
Katavic claims that foreign companies were the strongest of all in announcing price increases, but there are Croatian companies very much engaging in the same as well. This new wave of Croatian price hikes mostly regards increases of around 8 to 10%, but there are also those of 25 to 30 percent. Evacic added that the rise or fall of prices also depends on the sources of supply of the retailers themselves, contracts, agreements, terms... and the public.
Branko Roglic, the owner of the well known Croatian Orbico Group, otherwise the largest distribution company in the country's immediate region, says that they've raised their prices for their customers only by as much as their suppliers raised them for them.
''We will not increase our margins, but only transfer the prices we receive from our suppliers to our customers. We've been doing this for more than a year and a half, since the prices started to rise. We don't have any special earnings from this, nor do we want such earnings,'' he said.
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