The price of gas is two percent lower, starting from January 1. However, food prices are still rising. While citizens are boycotting stores in Croatia today due to rising prices, BiH citizens seem to be satisfied, because there is no reaction to the price increases.
The Minister of Economy is also standing in the boycott of stores in Croatia alongside citizens and other organizations that have joined them. At the same time, political representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina are laughing in the face of their citizens.
“The production and consumption of bread is decreasing, while the consumption and production of rolls and other higher-quality baked goods is increasing, which shows that our people are already able to afford a choice in this regard,” says Milorad Dodik, President of the Republika Srpska.
And so the roll is becoming a luxury. This is not the only example, but it is the most recent. The message from the former federal prime minister from four years ago, who is currently serving a prison sentence, also resonates. When a TV host states that 100 BAM this year and 100 BAM last year are not the same, Fadil Novalić responds:
“It depends on what you buy, that’s my answer. If you buy oil, you’ll buy 37% less of it. So, you’ll buy 37% fewer liters. Instead of 100, you’ll buy 63.”
Citizens are also aware that those in power care the least about those who elect them. And not only that, but also about the current social lethargy:
“And we support it, we don’t protest. Tuzla pensioners will go on strike today or tomorrow, and we’re silent, we’re fine while they humiliate us.”
However, citizens are not lethargic because they have no reason for social rebellion, but rather the political and state system is deterring them from it, believes Lejla Čaušević Sućeska, from the Federation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“For most issues, jurisdictions are fragmented at different levels, so for an organization of a large protest or action, it is very difficult to find an address to which citizens on the territory of BiH would send their demands,” he adds.
The government of the Federation of BiH has made a decision to reduce the price of natural gas by two percent. However, food prices are gaining momentum again. And these are not the symbolic ones, with creeping inflation, which are associated with the beginning of the year. This year it is much higher.
“For some products it is already visible, for others it will only be visible. Certain objective factors are, for example, the increase in the price of electricity for a part of the economy that is also happening in the FBiH, and that is a real increase in costs. However, the question is how many businessmen really have to increase their prices because of this increase, and how many of them could very easily be absorbed into their earnings,” notes economist Igor Gavran.
The consumer basket in BiH has long been above 3,000 BAM. Low incomes, trade margins, lack of domestic food production are the key reasons why BiH citizens are at the very bottom of Europe in terms of food costs. The Consumer Protection Ombudsman Institution has analyzed and compared global prices on world markets in the last ten, twenty and thirty years. Among other things, the current price of coffee on world stock exchanges is similar to the price from 2009 and 2010, and back then we drank it for a mark or a mark and a half.
The discrepancy between the growth of prices on the global level and the growth of prices on the domestic market is also worrying. It was recorded that at the global level the increase in food prices was 20%, while on the BiH market it varied from 100 to even 400%, N1 writes.
