The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) said on Tuesday that its members have analysed the current situation and will continue to monitor prices, noting that prices have increased over the past year and a half, and intensively in the last quarter of 2022, but not because of the euro changeover.

Addressing a press release, the HUP said that its members were respecting legal regulations and that its analysis showed that there were no omissions in the formation of prices during the euro changeover.

“Our position from the beginning has been that if there are irregularities, state bodies should detect them and sanction them,” HUP said.

HUP said it understands the concerns of consumers, but that price increases have been occurring over the past year and a half and more “intensively in the last quarter of 2022, but it had nothing to do with the euro changeover.”

“It is wrong to claim that the euro is to blame. Claims like that cause damage to the overall economy. Schengen and the euro contribute greatly to the entire economy, so public discourse has gone in completely the wrong direction,” HUP said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic reiterated on Monday that some enterprises exploited the euro changeover and unjustifiably raised their prices. He added that the government has tools and will not hesitate to use them, this Friday already, if prices are not returned to what they were and that subsidies would be revoked and taxes would increase.

“We will not allow the strategic achievement of the government and the state to be jeopardised by those who have acted irresponsibly,” he said, once again calling on enterprises to return prices to levels before the introduction of the euro.

“They have until Friday to restore their prices (to the previous levels),” he said.