The citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are certainly facing the most expensive New Year’s holidays, say the “Consumer Club” of the Tuzla Canton, and warn that the price of the holiday shopping basket has never been higher.
“The inflationary rise in prices, since the beginning of the pandemic, intensified by the war conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and now also by the conflict between Israel and Palestine, due to the global destabilization of the financial, energy, commodity, and especially the food market, is becoming increasingly uncontrollable, and in Europe (how much is known to us) due to the ‘dogmatic’ free market, it is difficult to take effective measures to curb commodity, fission and inflationary movements,” said Feni Gordana Bulić, president of the Consumers’ Association “Consumers’ Club” of the Tuzla Canton.
We are aware, he adds, “that every day when we leave the store for the same amount of money, we bring out fewer and fewer products that are increasingly only necessary for us”.
Bulić also says that most citizens, when prices and incomes are taken into account, will have a more modest holiday basket.
At the same time, he notes that some will be satisfied with a New Year’s dinner in the circle of the family for up to 100 BAM (especially if they have children from abroad), while some will spend a small fortune in trendy winter resorts and exclusive destinations… Unfortunately, the latter are probably less than 3 percent, and all the others (97 percent) will have bread and a kilogram or two of baked goods.
When it comes to consumer complaints and what they mostly related to this year, he answers that, unfortunately, consumers do not complain about price increases.
“I guess they are surprised by a miracle and are not sure if they should complain today or tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, because they know that even higher prices will await them,” she points out.
As he emphasizes, the citizens complained the most about the quality of services, servicing of purchased household appliances within the warranty period, and fraud in electronic and remote purchases.
“The cause is the absence of a legal framework or a bad existing legal framework”, assesses Bulić.
