The government's measures to cut excises on petrol and diesel and limit margins have prevented fuel prices from further increasing this week, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said on Tuesday, adding he was confident they will not cause supply disruptions.

He was commenting for the press on Slovenia’s Petrol’s claim that today already “we are faced with a lack of diesel and petrol on the market.”

Maric noted that with the first set of measures late last year, the government froze petrol and diesel prices.

But when oil prices on the international markets surged, the government started cutting excises and limiting margins instead of regulating prices to prevent supply disruptions. On Monday, the government reduced distributors’ margins by another 0.10 kuna per litre as well as the excise on petrol by another 0.40 kuna and on diesel by another 0.20 kuna.

To date, the excise on petrol has been cut by 0.80 kuna per litre and on diesel by 0.40 kuna, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said, adding that refined product prices will be changed every two weeks and not every week as until now.

Slovenia’s Petrol said today this was a very demanding period due to the unpredictability of the refined product market, and that purchase prices of refined products were also affected by the EU embargo on oil and refined products from Russia.

At a time when the fuel offer is limited, the state’s price limitation artificially increases demand and thereby prices once they stop being limited, Petrol said, adding that subsidies are the most appropriate state measure which does not affect existing taxes.

Due to high volatility, prices should be adjusted every week, not every fortnight, the company said.

Journalists asked Maric about the possibility of taxing the extra profit of energy companies.

He said some countries had resorted to that measure but that he would not go that far at the moment. In this complex situation, the government’s statements and measures are very cautious, he added.

We calmed the market with yesterday’s measures and we can be satisfied, he said, adding that no one can predict what will happen in the weeks ahead.

We hope that the situation will calm down, he said, adding that the government is considering further measures “depending on the need.”

Maric was also asked to comment on JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s statement that JP Morgan was bracing for an economic hurricane, and on Goldman Sachs president John Waldron’s statement about the many shocks in the system and difficult economic times ahead.

Such statements come out in times of crisis, when there are many uncertainties, he said, adding that with such uncertainty, it is difficult to predict how the situation will unfold.

He said the focus should also be on maintaining economic activity, not just on how to prevent inflation from affecting living standards and economic trends in Croatia and the EU so much.

Maric noted that the government revised this year’s growth rate but that it was still positive.

He said everyone, from manufacturers, services and agriculture to the state sector, “should make a certain contribution in order to maintain economic activity and prevent some situations as strongly as possible.”

In the 2023-25 convergence programme and projections adopted with the 2022 budget revision, the government revised its GDP growth rate projection for this year from 4.4 to 3% and inflation from 2.6 to 7.8%.