By: Andrej Žitnik / Nova24tv.si
According to the estimates of the European statistical office Eurostat, the annual inflation in the euro area fell to 10 percent in November, after it was 10.6 percent in October. The strongest factor that actively drives inflation is high energy prices, which are then spread throughout the economy. If it were not for the factor of high energy prices (the ECB is partly to blame for this, with an insufficiently aggressive policy of raising interest rates), inflation would be at an almost normal level. Except in Slovenia. In Slovenia, after six months, we are finally starting to feel “Freedom”.
Slovenia’s inflation in October was lower than the EU average due to the government’s moves to regulate energy prices, which will of course be indirectly paid for by taxpayers. While European inflation is slowing down, Slovenia’s is rising despite regulation.
As SDS MP Andrej Hoivik pointed out, the title of the article published on MMC is not true, saying that inflation remained at almost 10 percent in November. It did not persist, but it jumped. Namely, it was lower in October.
This is also clearly indicated by the data of the statistical office. The inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages will soon reach 20 percent, which is close to the beginning of the hyperinflation of the mid-1980s, which led us to cut zeros from dinar banknotes during Marković’s reforms.
Lahovnik: it is an attack on the standard of living
It is a well-known, but hushed-up secret in the media, that tax policy has a tremendous impact on the competitiveness of farming, and indirectly on inflation as well. The government has recently adopted a package of tax innovations, which – with increasing inflation – will hit you directly in the pocket. According to the economist and former Minister of Economy Matej Lahkovnik, the annulment of the tax reform of the government of Janez Janša is an “attack on the standard of living”. He wrote the following on the social network Twitter: “Abolishing the alignment of income tax brackets with inflation is an attack on the standard of living at 11% inflation, because the average taxation of real incomes increases in a time of severe inflation”.
In the past, however, he also said that the tax clamp is tightening due to the dearth and that progressive taxation is being increased, instead of looking for ways to relieve the burden on companies and the population in a crisis. Doubt about the decision of the Ministry of Finance becomes even greater when even the fiscal council finds that the government is not very skilled at assessing the real situation and finding solutions for it, because, as they wrote on Twitter: “The proposal to amending state budget for 2022 is considered unrealistic, and in the case of realisation as inadequate due to an excessively expansive attitude.”
There are no reports of salary increases
It is very significant how little has been reported in the media that the government will effectively reduce your wages with the tax reform. Most people do not even know what is happening, that they will get less from their work, even though the country is experiencing historically high inflation. It will not be until early 2023, when the middle class will start to disappear, that people will start to realise what is really going on.
