In Croatia, a boycott of shops, retail chains and gas stations has been announced for today due to the constant increase in prices, based on an initiative that started from the Facebook group “Hello, Inspector”, behind which stands the European Center for Consumer Excellence (ECIP), and in the meantime it was supported by companies for consumer protection, trade unions, political parties, and even the Minister of Economy himself.
That initiative started with messages that were shared on social networks in the past few days. “January 24th is a boycott in HR against high food prices. People are urged not to buy anything on that day, but nothing. Take care of yourself for that day as if it were Sunday,” the messages read, among other things. In the meantime, she was supported by consumer protection societies, trade unions, political parties, and the Minister of Economy, Ante Šušnjar.
Independent Croatian Trade Unions (NHS) on Thursday supported the citizens’ call for a boycott of shops, warning that the unbearable rise in prices threatens the standard of living and the achieved results of increasing citizens’ incomes. “Price levels and income levels are two sides of the same coin that determines the standard of living in the country,” said the Independent Croatian Unions.
Trade unionist Krešimir Sever, however, believes that a boycott of shops is the only real remedy in the fight against high prices, are also confirmed by good experiences elsewhere – in Italy, which has revolted over the prices of pasta and coffee, in Turkey over bakery products, and in the UK over fuel.
Opposition lawmakers also announced on Thursday that they would support the Friday shop boycott to which citizens have been invited, stressing that, while inflation is sucking the citizens, the Government is reaping the benefits of unbridled inflation in the budget, and traders are getting rich on margins, so it is actually a boycott due to the Government’s inaction.
Negotiations are underway at the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Croatia to expand the list of products with restricted products, which is The government announced last week, and Minister Šušnjar expressed support during the meetings for citizens and consumers who are embarking on a one-day shopping boycott to show their strength.
The Voice of Entrepreneurs Association (UGP) on Thursday expressed surprise at the Minister of Economy’s call for citizens to boycott stores, instead of, as they say, getting down to business and adopting concrete measures to curb price increases and high inflation. From that association, in order to reduce price increases, they propose a reduction in VAT, i.e. a single rate of five percent on all food products in order to lower the prices of basic foodstuffs, then the reform of the public sector, i.e. digitization and optimization in order to reduce the number of employees and costs, as well as incentives to agriculture with a focus on production and purchase from local producers and small traders, etc.
Data from the Tax Administration on fiscalized accounts on Friday will show how this citizens’ initiative went.
In Croatia, consumer prices measured by HICP in January last year increased by 4.5 percent compared to the same month in 2023, which is their strongest growth since May. Croatia is thus among the three EU countries with the highest inflation, behind Romania (5.5 percent) and Hungary (4.8 percent). The annual inflation rate in the EU was 2.7 percent in December last year, and in the eurozone it was 2.4 percent, according to the latest data from Eurostat.
