ZAGREB, 26 February, 2021 - The annual drop in GDP of 8.4% is as expected, Maruška Vizek, a researcher from Zagreb's Institute of Economics, told Hina, adding that Q3 saved Croatia from a deeper downturn because of the key contribution of tourism and underscoring the contribution of government's strategy in H1 2020.
"The year-on-year decline in GDP of 8.4% compared to 2019 is in line with expectations, and Q3 saved us from a larger contraction, since it was much better than expected thanks to the strategy the government employed in the first half of last year," Vizek said.
She recalled that the country had had a relatively strict lockdown with good epidemiological results and then a sudden relaxation of measures just before the start of the main tourist season, which had, she said "definitely contributed to the good results of the tourist season".
She added that the quarterly GDP had grown in the last two quarters, that is, in the second half of the year, which meant that the economy was pulling out of the recession.
"Unless there is again a very strict lockdown this year, I think that we can really expect that the growth in 2021 will be significant, that it will be in line with estimates between 5% and 6%, which again means that we won't return to the starting point before the pandemic this year, but we are at least no longer in the red," she said.
