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Consumer Guardian: More Price Hikes in Services Sector5 March 2007
The Slovenian Consumers' Association has found that that the services sector heads the list of euro-related price hikes. According to its statics, services were far more frequently to blame for euro-related price hikes than products. Findings of its Pricewatch project of price monitoring suggest what official consumer price index statistics have also shown: that there was more price increases following the adoption of the euro among providers of services than among retailers. While admitting significant differences in the type of study, head of the Slovenian Consumers' Association Breda Kutin told the press on Monday that there was nevertheless a pattern that emerged from both sets of data. Kutin said that the official data of deflation in Slovenia is not disputable, given that the Slovenian Consumers' Association had found that the people's perception that prices of retailers went up was wrong. According to its own basket of goods, the office found that 25% of the goods were cheaper, 39% remained unchanged and 36% went up in price. However, there was a marked difference between prices of goods and services: while the prices of only 35% of goods went up, 50% of services were dearer in the period between February 2006 and February 2007, Kutin said. Moreover, only 8% of services were cheaper compared to last year, as compared to 26% of goods whose price fell. The frequency of price increases is even smaller for the November-February period, when 56% of prices of monitored goods and services remained on par, whereas 25% fell and 19% increased, said Kutin. While the price of many a service has gone up, food is by general cheaper, Kutin said. She added that her organisation was very happy with the response from consumers, who have filed 1,500 of the total 1,800 complaints about unwarranted price hikes. Source: Slovenian press agency
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