June the 2nd, 2023 – Economy Minister Davor Filipovic has claimed that government intervention when it comes to the capping of energy prices has allowed for the stability of the domestic economy to continue throughout these pressing times.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Davor Filipovic said recently for HTV that it is good that the inflation rate has been decreasing for six months in a row now. It is currently at its lowest when compared to March 2022.
“We made some worthy moves”
“In the past period, the government did everything it could with a certain package of measures to influence the reduction of prices. It can be seen from the structure of inflation that the biggest drop has been in the price of energy products,” Davor Filipovic said.
The economy minister also pointed out that the Republic of Croatia has been recording growth which is twice the European Union average.
“According to that, we made some good moves and this is the best confirmation of it, which can be seen through the growth rates of Croatia’s GDP,” he told HRT.
“The government will continue to take care of living standards”
Davor Filipovic also pointed out that as long as this crisis lasts, that is, as long as the Russian aggression against Ukraine lasts, the Croatian Government will take care to protect the living standards of the general public and provide input to keep the Croatian economy stable and functioning as it should.
“By limiting the prices of energy products, the government enabled the smooth functioning of the economy”, he pointed out. In the last year, he said, Croatia enjoyed great economic growth compared to other EU nations.
“That economic growth has continued to grow. However, as long as this crisis lasts, we must be careful,” he emphasised.
Certain business entities profited from the crisis
“Inflation when it comes to food prices is also slowing down, but the rise in prices occurred because some business entities significantly increased their margins last year. They were looking to make as much profit as possible at the expense of the public. These businesses profited owing to the crisis,” he added.
Filipovic said that it is the final moment for everyone to start behaving socially responsibly, and members of the public themselves are the ones who can penalise the businesses that raised their prices the most under the guise of Eurozone accession back in January this year.
The picture of Croatian energy is changing…
The tender for geothermal water research was closed today. Sixteen offers came in, and Filipovic emphasised that he was satisfied that so many interested people had come forward. Renowned companies from all over the world made contact.
“If this tender is ultimately successful, we’ll have a situation where more than 100,000 households across Croatia will be supplied with electricity from renewable sources produced right here in the country. That’s a big deal. It’s a strategic decision,” said the minister.
He added that he believes that the opposition will say that this is a pre-election move, but the reality is that taking this path forward will completely change the picture of Croatian energy.
