Energy suppliers in the Czech Republic have already raised prices several times this year. Families living in houses that heat water, heat and cook with gas will feel it the most.
According to experts, a household consisting of four people will have to prepare approximately 56,000 crowns more than they were used to just for gas bills.
The worst situation is for families with children who live in a house and heat with gas. In a block of flats without gas, a family of four will pay an extra 11,000 crowns for electricity this year. However, if they live in a house and heats with gas, electricity costs will rise by 22,000 crowns this year, and even by 28,000 for gas.
However, it is not only households with children that are at risk. “The most vulnerable category of customers are typically pensioners who live in a house heated by gas and who have not invested in that house for a long time,” said Karel Polanecký, an energy expert from Duha.
According to experts, energy prices have still not reached their ceiling. For example, if a family of four uses gas for heating and water heating in their home and paid 25,000 for gas last year, they can prepare for a bill exceeding 81,000 crowns this year and 106,000 crowns next year.
Households will therefore probably have to look for ways to reduce consumption. “It is recommended to use more economical appliances, regulate the temperature and try to reduce consumption as low as possible,” recommended Jan Béreš, an energy analyst from the portal Ušetřeno.cz.
It will become more expensive next year as well
Former Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček (ANO) also warned against further price increases. According to him, not only energy prices, but also food prices will probably increase.
He reckons that the crisis will not last only in the autumn, but will stretch into the whole of next year. “The most challenging period of the last decades will come. It will not only be in the fall, but the whole of next year.”
He then blamed the current government of Petr Fiala (ODS) for insufficiently helping its citizens. “The government is raising too rosy expectations that it won’t let anyone down. For people to save? Count councils are not needed. There is practically no support (from the government),” said Havlíček.
Entrepreneurs also have to deal with higher energy prices. Gastro business operators have an even more difficult situation. This results in us paying extra for meals in restaurants these days. “In addition to general inflation, they are also troubled by the increase in the cost of the labor force of cooks or waitresses, up to the increase in the prices of food and ingredients,” said economist Lukáš Kovanda.
The second reason is that pub and restaurant operators were bleeding financially during the two years of the pandemic, so they now need to “heal” themselves with higher prices.
“In addition, they are troubled by the lack of a suitable workforce, which during the pandemic fled to e-commerce, for example,” explained Kovanda.
