Video, captured during the shopping boycott on January 24, displays an empty aisle in the supermarket. / Hello, inspector, via Facebook
Croatian stores were almost empty on January 24 due to a one-day shopping boycott held to protest against the increase in prices.
The campaign, which went virаl on social networks, called on citizens not to shop for one day to pressure both retailers and politicians to react to the increase in prices.
It was reported that store traffic fell drastically across the whole of Croatia throughout the morning.
"This morning, we witnessed the onset of the first consumer boycott... Reports are pouring in from different places. There are empty and half-filled parking lots, a handful of shoppers in the stores, and others walking towards them," read a Facebook message from the Halo, inspektore group.
The organizers said, "A BOYCOTT sends a strong message to those who have not yet taken steps to initiate measures to address inflation and the high prices!
High prices
As Croatia entered 2025, it recorded one of the highest rates of inflation in the European Union. As per Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, the annual rate of harmonised consumer price index (HICP) inflation for Croatia closed at 4.5% in December 2024, up from 4.0% in November. Only Hungary and Romania had higher inflation rates in the EU than Croatia. Much lower rates were posted by Ireland and Italy with annual inflations of 1.0% and 1.4% respectively.
Croatia was able to secure one of the highest rates of inflation in the EU during December. Eurostat was the source of this information.
In December, the consumer price index (CPI) for Croatia was reported to have increased by 3.4% on a year-to-year basis by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).
The government is still hopeful that prices will begin to fall, but ordinary Croatian households continue to be significantly affected by rising consumer costs, particularly for essentials like food, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco.
On January 15, Marko Primorac, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, conveyed to parliament that the government is "very worried" about inflation.
In response to a question from opposition MP Sanja Radolovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) regarding measures to tackle "greedflation" — particularly in foreign retail chains — Primorac said: "We acknowledge that some citizens continue to have problems with fulfilling their basic needs."
Energy price caps and reduction of VAT on gas and heating were stated by Primorac as strategies the government will use to fight inflation. He indicated some of the achievements by saying that inflation reduced from more than 13.5% in November 2022 to below 3% in 2024.
Primorac pointed out the equilibrium between strong economic growth and the inflationary pressure that balances itself with growth. He said, "Some are calling for a recession. While the slowdown would ease inflation, we are growing at a rate that is much higher than the EU average. We would prefer to be in our situation rather than those countries that are experiencing technical recessions, have rampant firings, and face bankruptcies in a downturn.
High food prices raise discontent.
For households that have to deal with EU average incomes lower than most, inflation has a very profound impact. In Croatia, where food takes a large part of household expenditure, rising costs are forcing many to reduce their meat consumption and switch to cheaper alternatives, local media say. Even these basic items are becoming too expensive for some to afford.
It was launched in January 2023 and has since sparked a debate with some attributing rising costs to it while also highlighting the cheaper prices in Slovenian supermarkets even though much higher wages prevail in the adjacent country.
Government officials want to put the blame on retailers. Economy Minister Ante Susnjar called on the citizens to hold these retailers responsible by imposing fines on those who continue to raise prices. He mentioned government initiatives like price freezes and lowered VAT rates, which he admitted are somewhat effective but not very much.
On January 21, Tugomir Majdak, the state secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told HTV News that the government is making plans to expand the list of capped products. Majdak noted in a government statement that we call on retail chains, especially, to behave fairly, because our prices do not match those in Europe, and which should bring consumer expectations.
Public discontent remains, despite all the actions by the government, including implementing price freezes on some items.
Political Consequences
The inflationary spiral has, therefore, badly squeezed household budgets and compounded political disharmony. It is a government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic that is already besieged by allegations of corruption and is now even harder pressed to solve the problem. Inflation management has been condemned by the opposition critics in conjunction with the recent daubs of corruption paint applied to this government.
Triggered by a scandal which prominently featured a video in which he was seen discharging a firearm from the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, the recent resignation of deputy prime minister Josip Dabro has much more significantly dented public trust. This departure came only days after an important corruption case against the former health minister, who was arrested during his time in office, was made public.
Dragan Primorac, the independent candidate from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, suffered a big defeat at the polls by the winner current President Zoran Milanovic. As Milanovic and the HDZ-led administration enter another challenging phase of coexistence, rising prices among Croatians add to the displeasure, putting more pressure on Plenkovic's government.
