Croatian shoppers angered by apparent Eurozone price hikes

Описание: (21 Jan 2023)
CROATIA EUROZONE PRICES

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

LENGTH: 3:07

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zagreb, Croatia - 20 January 2023

1. Wide of farmers' market in city center
2. Two shoppers browsing market stalls
3. Euro-denominated prices on display
4. Shoppers in market
5. Spring onions on display with prices
6. Various of people browsing, buying produce
7. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Jasna Jankovic, pensioner from Zagreb:
"Realistically, everything became more expensive, yeah. I was just at a store now, and the prices of everything went up. And they are rounding up prices again, it's like 5 euros and 99 cents. But hey, what can you do?"

8. Woman buying flowers
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Janice, from the Philippines, who moved to Zagreb a year ago:
"Milk, eggs... I guess all of the prices went up really high."

10. Various of people walking up and down stairway leading to farmers' market
11. Close of Jutarnji List newspaper front page, reading (Croatian): "Banks increase interest rates on mortgages," text below reading "A new 20-year 70,000-euro housing loan now costs 4,000 euros more"
12. Woman buying newspaper
13. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Damar Arbanas, pensioner from Zagreb:
"When I look at just the most basic necessities, like butter, bread, milk - the prices are unbearable now. It's not the increase they warned us about, it's 10 or 20 percent."
Reporter: "Have things become even worse after the euro was introduced?"
"Yeah, drastically. Everything went up drastically. In spite of everything they told us earlier, it's unbelievable. I've seen some comparisons with Slovenia and how it went in other eurozone countries, but that was all nonsense clearly."

14. Wide of farmers' market
15. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Zeljka, pensioner from Zagreb:
"I think all that (talk about price hikes) is a bit overblown. Every single country which introduced the euro had problems like these. It is us who have to get used to calculating from euros into kuna, because mentally, we still convert prices into kuna first, instead of basing our math on euros."

16. Souvenir towels sold on stall showing outline of Croatia

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zagreb, Croatia - 19 January 2023

17. Wide of shopping mall interior
18. Close of mannequin in store window, sign next to it reading "Sale"
19. People in store seen through shop window, sign reading "Discount 50%"
20. Various of clothing store with signs reading "Discount"
21. Various of shoppers paying for food at checkout

LEADIN:

Less than a month since Croatia joined the eurozone and replaced its currency with the euro amid historically high inflation, many Croatians are convinced the changeover was used by retailers for unwarranted price hikes.

STORYLINE:

Ever since Croatia became the 20th country to adopt the euro on January 1, retailers have been accused of using the situation to their advantage to increase profits.

Some experts say shops are rounding up euro-denominated prices or suddenly hiking prices by up to 50 percent, rather than merely converting their prices using the designated conversion rate of 7.53 kuna to 1 euro.

While retailers say prices were largely unaffected by the changeover and blame inflation, the government openly sided with the public and announced measures to combat price hiking, including sending inspectors to stores and service providers, as well as demanding large retail chains to report prices of every single product on a bi-weekly basis.


All three major telecoms also announced they would increase prices in February.









STORYLINE:




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