(ANSA) - Consumer associations on a war footing against spiralling prices are asking Italians to shun shops, supermarkets and cafes on Wednesday in support of Italy's fifth 'shopping strike' since the euro came in.
Italians are urged to spend as little as possible on Wednesday and to halt all energy consumption for five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening in protest at the hike in energy prices.
"Even if shoppers renounce one purchase, it will have an impact. We are hoping to see shops, banks, filling stations, and public offices deserted but refusing to use the telephone or even switching car engines off in traffic jams will help," said Intesa Consumatori, an umbrella association grouping together Italy's main consumer organisations.
Intesa, which has helped organise the previous four shopping strikes, warned families that additional household expenses this September would come to more than 1,000 euros.
It said the estimate derived from research into price variations affecting some 100 products and services including oil, electricity, gas and water rates.
Intesa said it was lobbying to obtain a 20% cut in prices and to prevent a planned increase in electricity bills, rail fares, motorway tolls and car insurance fees. It said it also wanted the government to cut fuel taxes by five euro cents to help bring down petrol pump prices and
for banks and chemists to lower their prices, which it insists have risen at an unjustified rate.
Bank charges alone have jumped 40% in the past five years, Intesa said.
The umbrella group said the shopping boycott would coincide with a protest outside the Lower House in Rome when MPs would be urged to turn off parliament's lights for five minutes in a show of support.
Consumer groups, trade unions and the opposition say prices have shot up since the January 2002 switch from the lira to the euro.
They have accused Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government of doing nothing to prevent the alleged hikes. National statistics bureau Istat has also been in the firing line, accused of 'masking' the real rate of inflation. According to Istat, inflation is currently running at 2.1%.
Critics have ridiculed this figure, citing for example the record level of oil prices, up some 10% in one month. Consumer groups say real inflation is running closer to 7% and that the prices of many items have doubled, with retailers and restaurants treating one euro like the old 1,000 lire - instead of almost 2,000 old lire.
Istat, meanwhile, has firmly defended its methods while maintaining that the methodology used by independent researchers claiming a soaring inflation rate is unscientific.
The government has also defended Istat, denying that prices have risen unduly and rejecting criticism that it has done little to check inflation.
