Average Croatian Family Barely Covers the Costs of Basic Survival

HINA

12 August 2005

�The average Croatian family has problems to cover the costs of a child birth, a wedding ceremony or a funeral, having in mind that their monthly income is barely sufficient to cover the costs of basic subsistence�, Kresimir Sever, the President of the Independent Trade Unions of Croatia, said last Wednesday.

Ivan Generalic's The Beggar

"Only the rich in Croatia are financially capable of covering the events that come in everybody�s life � a childbirth, wedding or funeral, while the poor tend to save on the basic needs, such as food and medication�, said Sever at the conference for the media.

The young usually raise bank loans of up to 15,000 EUR to cover the costs of a wedding, and often their parents go into debt, too, having depleted their �reserves� and savings. In addition, they borrow money from family and friends, while only the few lucky ones manage to cover the costs of the wedding party through the presents and gifts they received.

The real upward explosion of prices actually lies ahead, with the entry into the European Union. All the capitals of the transition countries jumped several, even ten places on the list of expensive cities to live in after the EU accession, warned Sever.