The government is likely to apply legislation on extraordinary measures in price control and in that way set a maximum price for about a hundred products in a bid to curb further price hikes, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Wednesday.

According to the daily, several options are on the table and the government is mulling the restoration of prices to the levels at which they were before December 31, 2022. The daily speculates that the price cap regulation could refer to up to 300 products.

In September 2022, the government capped the prices for nine essential products, and the Jutarnji List daily quotes a source close to the government as saying that the same rule could be now applied to even more products and services.

The source says that some of the retail chains, for example, enjoy preferred energy prices and take advantage of the lower energy costs only to raise prices now to the disadvantage of consumers.

No subsidised electricity price for those raising prices with no valid reason

The Vecernji List daily today quoted Economy Minister Davor Filipovic as saying that those who took advantage of the euro changeover to raise their prices on January 1 without any valid reason could be deprived of subsidised electricity prices.

Filipovic noted that in 2022, when the economy was faced with energy price hikes, the enterprise sector asked the government to intervene and help.

“The government intervened to help them, as households and businesses must function,” he was quoted by the daily as saying in a comment on some options for the Andrej Plenkovic cabinet to address the higher prices as of January 1, when Croatia switched to the euro.

He again criticised those who “tried to fish in the troubled waters” and increase their prices unfairly.