ZAGREB, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Croatian government has introduced a 248-million-euro (275 million U.S. dollars) package of measures aimed at mitigating the impact of rising prices on households and businesses over the next six months, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday.
"The package has two priorities -- to keep the price of energy low and to protect those who are the most vulnerable," Plenkovic said at a government session.
According to the package, the government will retain subsidies for electricity and gas for citizens, the public and the non-profit sectors, and small businesses over the rising prices. Meanwhile, the government will provide a one-time 70-euro voucher to nearly 90,000 people who are considered vulnerable energy buyers, and additional support, ranging from 70 to 540 euros per month, will be given to social service providers.
Moreover, pensioners will receive a monthly support ranging from 60 to 160 euros and this measure will benefit the 760,000 pensioners in Croatia, Plenkovic said.
The government will also allocate 4.5 million euros to support students, ensuring that the price of student meals does not increase by 20 percent. Additionally, around 13,000 unemployed Croatian veterans will receive a one-time compensation of 100 euros to help mitigate the rising cost of living.
This was the seventh package of measures the Croatian government has introduced to protect households and the economy from rising prices. The year-on-year inflation rate in Croatia was 1.8 percent in August and Plenkovic claimed that this was the lowest rate of inflation in the past three years. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) ■
