ZAGREB, February 12, 2019 - Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Tuesday that Croatia was not at risk of recession and that Croatia's economy would grow significantly more than 2% while the negative impact of other economies slowing down on Croatia's tourism could be buffered by raising the quality in that sector.
Ćorić was replying to reporters outside Government House ahead of a meeting of coalition partners when asked about theories that another recession could occur on the global level in 2020 and whether Croatia should be concerned.
He said that although there are some indications of a recession in some countries, primarily in Germany and Italy, he believes that based on estimates over the past few weeks, Croatia's economy would grow significantly more than 2% and that the government hopes that certain investment cycles could further boost that growth.
The European Commission downgraded Croatia's growth forecast for this year to 2.7% from an earlier forecast of 2.8% because it expects a slowing down in the growth of exports due to weakening economies in the European Union, which are Croatia's most important trade partners.
Analysts from the Economic Institute in Zagreb (EIZ), however, on Monday estimated that the real GDP growth in Croatia in Q4 could be 2.3%, significantly lower than had been expected based on data for October and November and an annual GDP increase of 2.6%.
"In that context, I don't see that Croatia is at risk of recession," Ćorić claimed.
He noted that the slowing down in economic activity in some other countries will impact the very important economic segment of tourism however, regardless of that, he was certain that raising the quality in the tourism sector "would somehow buffer that problem."
Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Minister Darko Horvat said the EC and all relevant institutions forecast Croatia's economic growth would be between 2.7% and 2.9% and that there is no indication that something drastic would change in 2020 either.
More news on Croatia’s economy can be found in the Business section.
