Responding to questions from the press about subsiding inflation, the minister recalled that as part of the government's efforts to contain inflation talks had been held in September with representatives of the largest retail chains in the country and that the prices of 30 product groups were capped.
"We can see that there has now been a marked decline in inflation compared with August. Currently, it stands at the lowest levels since January last year," Filipović told the press after attending the launch of the first Slovenian-Croatian business magazine Next Business Croatia-Slovenia.
Inflation fell from 7.8% in August to 6.7% in September. According to a preliminary estimate of the national statistical office, it slowed down to 5.8% in October.
The European Commission said in its Autumn Economic Forecast on Wednesday that it expected inflation to slow in Croatia next year. "This is also confirmation that we are managing this whole process well," Filipović said.
"Despite the announcements by the usual critics and doomsayers in the Croatian media and political sphere, the European Commission predicts that this year our economy will grow at the second highest rate in the European Union. This is in line with the trends from the first two quarters when our economy grew at a rate five times higher than the EU average," Filipović noted.