January the 8th, 2022 - The richest Croatian municipalities enjoy incomes as high as the 24 poorest in the country put together, which means there's some seriously huge wage disparity in Croatia. Rather unsurprisingly, they're all located in Istria.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a new analysis undertaken by the Institute of Public Finance shows that back in pandemic-dominated 2020, the Istrian municipality of Medulin was the richest municipality in all of the Republic of Croatia. It generated the highest total revenues, totalling 77 million kuna, which is equal to the sum of the total revenues of the 24 poorest municipalities put together.
Interestingly, the total revenues of the ten richest Croatian municipalities, 530 million kuna, are equal to the sum of the total revenues of one quarter of all of the country's quite numerous municipalities. Among the Croatian municipalities with per capita income of more than 10,000 kuna, as many as 17 of them 29 are located close to the coast.
''We're really far ahead of other Croatian municipalities in terms of budget realisation. Since we're mostly a tourist destination, surviving the pandemic-dominated year of 2020 was a challenge, and recovering the level of income we once had is even greater,'' Medulin Mayor Ivan Kirac told local portal Glas Istre.
''Despite everything, I expect a significant increase in revenue this year. In the future, we're planning to base all of our strategies on income diversification, so I hope that we will create an even more resilient system to such troubles,'' explained Kirac.
The Croatian municipalities with the largest budget per capita include the Istrian municipalities of Kastelir-Labinci (2,700 kuna) and Oprtalj (2,600 kuna), which are in third and fourth place on a national level.
The Institute of Public Finance says that when interpreting the financial situation of Croatian municipalities and cities, one should be careful because many municipalities and cities have a high share of state and/or EU aid in total operating revenues in a given year, which doesn't typically apply to those located by the sea.
According to the Institute of Public Finance, Medulin maintained its leading position throughout 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic negatively affected the budgets of local governmental units and resulted in a decline in average total revenues and an increase in average deficits.
The Institute of Public Finance says that their analysis should encourage the public to further study the databases of the Ministry of Finance and its local governmental units, and get more detailed information on collecting and spending money from local budgets, Glas Istre writes.
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