Introduction of the euro and development of prices: Don’t let them mislead us

Last update: 04.06.2008 06:00

A friend of mine told me she was not afraid that the euro would bring higher prices. She said the best way was to inform about some changes in advance and seek to find a common language with consumers  She illustrated this with an agreement with the property management company in her apartment block. The management company warned a meeting of apartment owners that fees “must” be increased because of the new currency and they immediately “agreed” on a mutually acceptable amount. What a reasonable and fair approach, my friend exclaimed.

I hated to spoil her illusions, but I told her about the approved general act, which includes an express prohibition of such activities. Not only are such practices unfair and improper, but they directly contradict this act (which will enter into force in a few days’ time). Section 23 of this act clearly specifies that “prices may not be increased due to the costs and expenditures related to the adoption of the euro…”.To avoid any misunderstanding – nobody is seriously trying to claim that after the changeover to the new currency prices should freeze, or should only be allowed to fall. The prices will, naturally, continue to develop according to market factors, as they have done so far and in the same way as they would do even if we kept the Koruna.

But what we should definitely not accept – and where the new law helps us – are efforts to defend higher prices using the adoption of the euro as an argument. Do not let them mislead us. The change of the currency unit in which the prices are displayed must be nothing more than a simple arithmetic operation, not the cause of a change in the value itself. Unless we wanted to silently accept, in advance, something that somebody else might attempt to trickily foist on us…

Igor Barát 
Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for the Introduction of the Euro