On an annual basis, consumer prices in Slovenia rose by an average of 10.4 percent in June. The biggest contributors to inflation were the price increases of oil derivates, food and electricity. On a monthly basis, inflation was 2.7 percent, and it was increased by higher prices of electricity, holiday packages and food, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia reported. Golob’s government started adopting quasi-measures that would supposedly make life easier for citizens during the crisis, but since coming to power, the current government has caused the exact opposite to happen – to everyone, including his voters and the civil society, which he constantly spoke of before the election.
Primary commodities rose in price by 10.4 percent in one year. The prices of goods were on average higher by 13.1 percent, and the prices of services by 5.3 percent. The price of goods for daily consumption rose by 16.5 percent, durable goods by 10.5 percent, and semi-durable goods by 2.9 percent. Inflation is at a record high, and Golob’s government is actually maintaining inflation with its measures instead of mitigating it.
A high rise in inflation
Higher prices for electricity, gas and other fuels contributed the most to the overall rise in prices on an annual basis, as the price of gas went up by 49.4 percent, the price of thermal energy by 43.6 percent, and the price of electricity by 29.4 percent. This was followed by higher prices of petroleum products and a 12.8 percent increase in the price of food; each of these two groups raised inflation by 1.9 percentage points. The prices of liquid fuel rose by 54.6 percent, while the prices of fuels and lubricants for passenger wheels rose by 34.5 percent.
When it comes to food, the price increases of bread and cereal products (16.2 percent) and meat (12.9 percent) are the ones that stood out most.
Prime Minister Robert Golob also responded to the Statistical Office’s data, warning against the inflationary pressures that we will experience in the coming months. And yet, despite the pressures of inflation, the new government, headed by Golob, has adopted certain measures that, if anything, are sustaining inflation rather than solving it. The significant increase in the price of petroleum products, which was quite a hit for the consumers, was the first so-called measure that affected the citizens in anything but a positive way. “We have seen the first measure, and it is not a new measure; it is actually an old measure from three years ago when this model was in force – but under normal conditions. However, the current conditions are extraordinary, and that is why we expected something different, but we got an old measure instead,” the economist Dr Matej Lahovnik recently commented on the presented measures for mitigating inflation.
Solving the price increase of food in the “socialist” way that they are familiar with
After the significant increase in the price of fuel, the prices also increased in the food sector, and here, too, the Golob government decided to “help” with its rather “special” measures, namely, they agreed with the Chamber of Commerce that the latter will prepare a basket of 15 foods, and with information about the prices of these food products at individual retailers, they intend to help us decide where to purchase them. Journalist Vida Kocjan pointed out in one of her recent comments that this is, in fact, a completely socialist measure, and she also reminded everyone that we have already witnessed something like this in the past: “A socialist measure: A framework basket of 15 staple foods. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food will obtain price data for the basket from different stores and use it for internal analyses. What this means in practice: the retailers will push the prices of these products down, but there will obviously be inflation in the basket as well. Something like this has already happened before,” she pointed out, adding that this is actually a short-term scam.
As recently as February, Slovenia was still at the top of the list of the countries that were most successful in their fight against inflation
Economic growth remained high due to the effects from the previous year, which proves just how effective the work of the government of Janez Janša was, as growth at the end of the year is forecast to be 5.8 percent. But despite all of this, high inflation is also being predicted this year – and it is rising. The first government measures presented by Prime Minister Robert Golob are, compared to those adopted by Janez Janša during the crisis, much smaller and not very promising for the citizens’ wallets. Let us remind you that even in February of this year, with 4.9 percent inflation, Slovenia was ranked among the countries with lower inflation, even lower than the EU-27 average (5.3 percent) and even lower than the average of the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development – OECD (6.6 percent).
Tanja Brkić
