Retail transactions down 44% after boycott

The nation-wide boycott of retail grocery stores and gas stations on Friday, namely a citizens' initiative to protest high prices, had a significant impact, resulting in a drastic drop in turnover across the board. 

Data from the Tax Administration office released on Saturday show that the total amount of transactions on Friday, 24 January, was 44% lower than on the same day just one week earlier; while total value of those transactions was 53% lower compared to the previous Friday.

Nearly 28.6 million euros were spent at retail stores yesterday, compared to 60.5 million last Friday.

Josip Kelemen, the organizer of the event, said the success of the boycott would lead to further civil action moving forward.

"What will happen in the future will be known after we analyze the results of yesterday's boycott. Likewise, we need to analyze which retail chains will be targed: all, some, domestic, foreign, or whether we will boycott specific products. We also want to see how we can influence the initiative regarding a reduction of the Value Added Tax on certain products," said Kelemen.

On Friday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that the boycott was an important and clear message by citizens that would be taken into account when defining administrative measures to cap prices that the government will adopt next week.

In September 2022 the government decided to cap the prices of some basic products such as cooking oil, milk, flour, sugar, chicken meat, and minced pork as part of measures to cushion the impact of the energy crisis and the Covid pandemic on consumers.

Croatia reported a 4% average annual increase in EU-harmonised prices last year, compared to 8.4% in 2023 and 10.7% in 2022. Measured by the EU-harmonised index of consumer prices, prices of goods and services for personal consumption in Croatia increased by an average 4.5% year-on-year in December, following a 4% increase in November.