Hungarian shopping tourism is a hot topic in the Croatian media

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 01. 23. 11:26

Since the VAT reduction of basic foodstuffs, shopping has become about 40 percent cheaper in Croatia than here, so many people go to their southern neighbors for a little shopping. The phenomenon has become so striking in Croatia that several media have dedicated a separate news block to it, including the daily Croatian Index, which has been hostile to the Hungarian government several times.

The paper also sought an answer to the reason for the increased traffic, one of the main reasons of which was that Hungary produced the largest price increase in the EU. In December 2022, inflation reached 25 percent, which is much higher than in the Baltic states, which are closely linked to Russia both economically and in foreign trade, the Croatian Index wrote. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania thus ended the year with much lower inflation than Hungary (Latvia 20.7 percent, Lithuania 20 percent, Estonia 17.5 percent).

According to the newspaper, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is trying to blame the EU and the sanctions on Russia for the rise in prices, however, according to them, “this simply cannot be true, because even before the war in Ukraine, inflation in Hungary was higher than in the rest of the EU.”

In summary, the Croatian paper also emphasizes that Hungary cannot blame anyone for the increase in food prices, as it is self-sufficient in the production of most food products. He cannot blame anyone for the rise in oil and gas prices because he was exempted from the EU sanctions on gas imports from Russia, the author of the article added, according to the Hungarian Index