ZAGREB, Aug 30 (Hina) - Croatian Economy Minister Goranko Fizulic presented the statistics on economic movements for the period January 2000 - July 2001 at a government session on Thursday. Salaries and retail prices increased by some
8.5% while pensions increased by 20.14 percent, which means that pensioners today can buy more with their pensions that they used to 18 months ago, he said. Speaking about living costs in this period, Fizulic said food prices increased by 3.3%, while the prices of goods and services increased by 7.9 and 7.8% respectively. Many food products today are much cheaper than in June last year, says Fizulic adding this change was the result of Croatia's admission to the WTO and the reduction of protective tariffs. Since mid-December last year the price of petrol has increased by 3.4%, while the price of diesel has increased by 2.6%, Fizulic said, warning that the produce
ZAGREB, Aug 30 (Hina) - Croatian Economy Minister Goranko Fizulic
presented the statistics on economic movements for the period
January 2000 - July 2001 at a government session on Thursday.
Salaries and retail prices increased by some 8.5% while pensions
increased by 20.14 percent, which means that pensioners today can
buy more with their pensions that they used to 18 months ago, he
said.
Speaking about living costs in this period, Fizulic said food
prices increased by 3.3%, while the prices of goods and services
increased by 7.9 and 7.8% respectively. Many food products today
are much cheaper than in June last year, says Fizulic adding this
change was the result of Croatia's admission to the WTO and the
reduction of protective tariffs.
Since mid-December last year the price of petrol has increased by
3.4%, while the price of diesel has increased by 2.6%, Fizulic said,
warning that the producers of bread and milk increased the prices of
their products in the first months of 2001 explaining the move with
the increase in the prices of oil products. However, they did not
reduce the prices of their products following drops in the prices of
oil products, he added.
Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac said he had serious doubts regarding
some of the information on price movements, particularly the
information on the 8.5% increase in retail prices and the 7.9%
increase in living costs. The minister believes the increase in
prices and costs of living is lower than the statistics show.
Crkvenac also suggested several measures which should help improve
the methods of state statistics.
State Statistics Bureau director Ivan Rusan announced a project of
development and application of new methods for the calculation of
the index of consumer prices, to start in 2003.
(hina) sb rml