The Social Democrats warned on Tuesday about rising inflation and the fact that a large number of citizens live on the brink of poverty, proposing a model to increase wages by increasing nontaxable income from €530 to 700, which, they said, would result in an increase in all wages of €35-60 a month.

The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and euro introduction have impacted the global economy, supply, the flow of goods and consumer prices, and Croatia has been affected most strongly, due to, among other things, its weak agriculture, Social Democrats vice-president Domagoj Hajdukovic said at a news conference.

He noted that prices of bread and eggs have gone up by as much as 32% and 64% respectively.

The reason for that is an increase in prices of production materials (fertilisers, seeds, animal feed) since the start of the pandemic, he said.

Social Democrats international secretary Davor Bernardic warned about a new wave of price hikes, stressing that a year ago his party had proposed a freeze on prices of basic foodstuffs, which the government ignored.

“We proposed blacklisting those aiming to make profit on euro introduction. The government said at the time that there would be no price increases, while now it is threatening retailers with an empty gun,” he said, proposing, as a way of dealing with price hikes, an increase in wages by raising nontaxable income from €530 to 700.

He also noted that Zagreb’s Cistoca city sanitation company has no reason to raise its prices because it has already doubled them, noting that prices of parking, swimming pools, and libraries have gone up as well and that an increase in prices of kindergartens and other municipal services has been announced as well.