The increase in prices in Croatia has nothing to do with the introduction of the euro. In our country, from December 2019 to the same month in 2024, the overall inflation is 35%. For food, it is 52%. However, if we do not use the open window to enter the eurozone now, we will stand in line for a long time. This was said by Assoc. Prof. Ognyan Boyukliev from the Institute for Economic Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the studio of "The Day Live".
According to him, bread in our country will not become cheaper. "An agreement was reached in Greece - where there are tourist sites, retail chains offer ready-made food at higher prices so that people go to restaurants. In Croatia, restaurateurs increased prices after the increase in tourists, which led foreigners to buy food from stores and eat in their rooms or in the gardens. And in France, there is a Food Trade Law. So the French take their consumption structure and translate it into 100 euros. Of these, 14 euros go to the primary producer, while in our country about 10 out of 100 leva goes. In Bulgaria, the secondary sector works with foreign raw materials, that's the problem," the economist commented.
According to him, freezing food prices is a "left" policy that confuses the market. "In the US, for example, there is currently talk about local farmers and their protection, so that they produce cheaper, higher-quality and healthier food," Boyukliev added.