Business

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 27th of March, 2020, despite the potential economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, finally some good news for the Croatian IT market has emerged - The Canadian company FreshBooks is planning to open a development centre right here in Croatia. The plan is to recruit a large number of IT professionals, which certainly means a lot to a country that has been struggling with retaining talented and skilled people for a long time, even before this crisis. FreshBooks is cloud-based accounting software tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that greatly…

ZAGREB, March 28, 2020 - Labour and Pension System Minister Josip Aladrović has said that by Friday, 43,000 employers sought assistance as part of the government's first set of measures designed to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, asking the state to pay the minimum wage for 253,000 employees. Asked if he was surprised by the large number of applications, the minister said in an interview with RTL that initial estimates had predicted that minimum wages would be sought for around 500,000 workers. He recalled that between four and six billion kuna would be ensured for…

ZAGREB, March 27, 2020 - The European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC) on Friday condemned a possible legislative initiative that would suspend labour and social rights during the coronavirus pandemic and called on Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Labour Minister Josip Aladrović to scrap such proposals. ETUC reminds the Croatian government of recent warnings by high representatives and bodies of the International Labour Organisation and the Council of Europe that the crisis caused by COVID-19 "should not be used, even temporarily, to dismantle human rights and social rights, in particular trade union and workers’ rights," several Croatian union federations, ETUC…

March 27, 2020 - TCN's Aco Momcilovic discusses the economic crisis and lukewarm Croatian government help for the private sector in an interview with Davor Huic, President of LIPA.   The Government has proposed measures that seemed inadequate for most of the entrepreneurs. What could they expect and hope at the moment? It seems that the government has grossly underestimated the gravity of the economic crisis that may hit Croatia following the coronavirus epidemic. They apparently put a vast amount of resources, energy and time into planning and carrying out the fight against the virus, but have not addressed the issue…

Zagreb, March 26th 2020 - By the end of the year, if the government accepts the measures proposed by the initiative GLAS PODUZETINKA (Voice of Croatian Entrepreneurs), 250.000 jobs could be saved, 150.000 layoffs still inevitable. CRISIS COST PROJECTION ON JOB AVAILABILITY Headed by the prominent economical and political analyst PhD Vuk Vuković, GLAS PODUZETNIKA initiative made a projection of three possible scenarios that could befall the Croatian private sector. In the worst-case scenario, by the end of the year, 405.000 people could get laid off. In addition to that, by the end of 2021, 160.000 more people could be left…

As tportal/Maruska Vizek writes on the 26th of March, 2020, following the transition from socialism to a market economy, the Homeland War and the great financial crash of 2008, the coronavirus epidemic is the fourth structural breakdown that has hit the Croatian economy, according to a major analysis by the Zagreb Institute of Economics director Maruska Vizek. As such, she proposes sixteen anti-crisis measures that should be taken in addition to those already presented by the Government to save the Croatian economy. Economists have a special name for events like the coronavirus epidemic; we call them structural fractures. A structural…

ZAGREB, March 27, 2020 - According to data from eVisitor, there were 10,757 tourists in Croatia as of March 25, 60% domestic and 40% foreign, and the majority (46%) were in non-commercial accommodation, the National Tourist Board (HTZ) says. Of the 4,308 foreign tourists, 11% were from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4% from Slovenia and 3% from Serbia and Germany each. In a response to a query from Hina, HTZ says that on March 25 there were 821 more tourists in Croatia than on March 19, when eVisitor recorded 9,936. This year through March 25, 630,000 tourists visited Croatia, generating 1.8…

ZAGREB, March 26, 2020 - The president of the Croatian Employers Association (HUP), Gordana Deranja, told Hina on Thursday that no one was to blame for the COVID-19 epidemic but that she was afraid that the private sector would again suffer the most. "The situation is not pretty, we are plagued by uncertainty, the economy is in a difficult state and we do not have a clear vision of what will happen next. It is clear that neither the government nor any of us are to blame for the epidemic, but I am afraid that the private sector will once…

ZAGREB, March 26, 2020 - The Croatian government on Thursday adopted a decision on the financing of a project to upgrade the rolling stock of the railways transport company HŽ Putnički Prijevoz, the estimated value of the four-year project being HRK 1.29 billion, including VAT. Transport Minister Oleg Butković said that HŽ Putnički Prijevoz would expand its rolling stock by buying 21 new electric trains, which would improve public transport services. The eligible cost of the project has been estimated at HRK 1.03 billion, and the non-eligible cost refers to VAT in the amount of HRK 258.17 million. Under the…

ZAGREB, March 26, 2020 - The EIB Group invested €569 million in Croatia in 2019, which is 12.2% more than in 2018, the Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, Dario Scannapieco, said in an interview with Hina published on Wednesday. The European Investment Bank is the lending arm of the European Union. The EIB Group, owned by the member states, has two parts: the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. The EIF fund specialises in finance for small businesses and mid-caps. Last year's investments of €569 million in Croatia are equivalent to 1.05% of the country's GDP, and…