The question remains, how do the citizens survive? The consumer basket of almost 3 thousand marks is five times higher than the minimum pension and salary. The crisis does not exist only for politicians, who, according to estimates, earn up to eight times more than citizens.
Pensioner Ljuba Pejić has reduced her purchases since the prices started to go wild. Follow where what is cheaper.
“It is very difficult for us pensioners. The pensions are small and the children are good for us, they help us a lot and we make ends meet”, Pejic said.
In the Zvono consumer association, they point out that citizens give up many things in order to survive. Most people no longer buy by the kilogram, but by the piece. They believe that the increased inflows into the budgets from VAT are a consequence of rising prices, and not the purchasing power of citizens, which has significantly decreased.
“Prices on the market have increased compared to last year, some products by 100 percent. One class of citizens lives very well. In our country, stratification is present when it comes to the quality of life”, it was stated from “Zvono”.
Citizens in the consumer basket spend the most on food, almost 50 percent, while coverage by the minimum wage is 20 percent. The Association of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers the limitation and individual waiver of margins on some products to be an insufficient and short-term measure. They emphasize the need to help local producers and invest more in agriculture.
“To make a list of 100-150 or more products as other countries have done and to limit their prices to prohibit the increase of those prices for a certain period of time”, says Lejla Causevic from Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A long period of falling production costs is needed to bring down prices, according to economists.
“When we have an increase in oil prices on the world market, our prices follow that increase very quickly, but when that drop occurs at gas stations, it drops much more slowly.”
The interlocutors conclude that retail chains were really hunting in the dark and making additional profits during inflation and unjustifiably raising the prices of products whose costs did not increase, because they were produced earlier.
