"The government is preparing a set of measures to help public institutions to cope with the rising prices of energy products," state news agency Hina said on Thursday, citing report published in the latest edition of the Jutarnji List newspaper.

“The set of measures aimed at alleviating the pressure caused by soaring energy bills will be prepared next week,” Hina quoted Jutarnji List, which cited an unnamed source close to the government.

One of the measures reported by Jutarnji List is to simply designate public institutions such as schools, hospitals, nursing and senior homes as “households.”

Unlike gas and electricity prices paid by businesses, household prices are capped via government regulation, which in practice means they are often considerably lower. In addition, the government subsidizes their bills directly or through the national power board HEP.

Furthermore, businesses will also get some kind of assistance, “however aid schemes for the companies has not yet been defined.” Currently, businesses and hospitals, for instance, are facing electricity bills several times higher than before the crisis.

A restaurant owner from Zagreb was quoted as saying that the restaurant’s electricity bill jumped from 40,000 kuna to 120,000 kuna, presumably per month. The KB Dubrava hospital, one of the largest in the country, reported a five-fold increase in its gas bill.

Businesses are also faced with uncertainty going forward, as the city-owned gas distributor GPZO in Zagreb is now offering them new contracts which will tie gas prices to market prices, which are volatile and can easily change from month to month.