What does the latest CIA data say about Croatia?
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which is the civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, uses The World Factbook as their reference resource for the countries of the world.
As stated on the CIA’s official website, The World Factbook “provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.”
Among them, of course, is Croatia.
Because I imagine we are all a bit curious about the data the CIA has gathered about Croatia, today we bring you the latest report on Croatia from the CIA’s World Factbook, released on August 31, 2017. Index.hr reports the details on September 4, 2017.
In the "Introduction" about Croatia, it is emphasized that today's territory of Croatia was made up of parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but only until 1918, after which the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs founded kingdom, which, since 1929, was called Yugoslavia. Croatia declared independence in 1991, which was followed by "four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands, along with a majority of Croatia's ethnic Serb population.”
The other sections of the Factbook relay information about Croatia as a whole. For example, it is highlighted in the “Geography” section that 23% of Croatia is made up of agricultural land, but that only 1.5% of the land has permanent crops. The average age of a Croatian citizen is 42.7 years, and when looking at the rate of population growth, Croatia is ranked 224th in the world. For youth unemployment (ages 15-24), however, Croatia is ranked ninth in the world, between Guyana and Tunisia.
When it comes to the political climate in Croatia, the CIA seems to be thoroughly informed, given that even HRAST and its president, Ladislav Ilčić is mentioned on the list of political parties and leaders. If you did not know who the president of the long-lost Laborist party is, do not fret - the CIA knows, and it is David Bregovac.
In the section about the Croatian ”Economy”, it is stated that Croatia "remains one of the richest republics of former Yugoslavia", but is also in an economically bad situation. While the period between 2000 and 2007 was a time of economic growth, it was followed by a long-term recession until 2015.
“Difficult problems still remain including a stubbornly high unemployment rate, uneven regional development, and a challenging investment climate,” explains the CIA, but adds that the tax reform from last year "demonstrated a commitment to improving the business climate”. It is noted that Croatia also wants to become a "regional energy player.”
The CIA also stresses that Croatia has some border disputes with its neighboring countries, and states that Slovenia continues to impose a hard border Schengen regime with Croatia, which is still not a part of the Schengen area in the European Union.
Lastly, the CIA points out heroin is smuggled through Croatia on the Balkan route from Southwest Aia to Western Europe, and that Croatian ports are sometimes used as transit points for cocaine from South America.
You can read the full report on the official CIA website.
