Business

December 10, 2019 - How have the economies of Eastern and Central Europe been growing since the collapse of Communism? An interesting GDP per capita comparison year by year from 1992 to 2017.  The fall of the Berlin wall and all that followed brought immense change to Eastern and Central Europe, with some countries adapting better than others, some affected by war, others embracing the digital age. A very interesting video timeline of how those economies have fared from 1992 to 2007 was covered by Index today in this great video below.  Another way to look at the data,…

ZAGREB, December 10, 2019 - Croatian arms, ammunition and military equipment factories showcased their products at a presentation in Sarajevo on Tuesday intended for potential buyers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and foreign diplomats accredited in that country. Croatian assistant defence minister Roman Mikulić said that the Croatian defence production had reached about €200 million annually and that it employed about 3,000 people. He expressed satisfaction that the HS Produkt company was successful on demanding markets such as the United States where more than 5 million HS semi-automatic pistols have been sold to date. "I can proudly say that our companies…

ZAGREB, December 10, 2019 - Despite an increase in physical indicators - arrivals and overnight stays - tourist companies in Croatia have this year reported a decrease in profitability, which can impact their future investments, Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) director Veljko Ostojić said on Tuesday. Presenting to reporters an analysis on the tourism sector in the fourth quarter of this year, Ostojić said that all types of accommodation this year recorded a drop in the occupancy rate and that all companies had to deal with a labour shortage. "The number of overnight stays this year has grown more slowly than…

ZAGREB, December 10, 2019 - Six in ten companies in the EU believe that tax rates, swift changes of laws and policies, and complex administrative procedures are their main problems in doing business, according to the findings of a Eurobarometer survey of the business sector's corruption perception. The findings, published on International Anti-Corruption Day, show a downward corruption trend but 63% of the companies polled consider corruption to be widespread. In 2013, 75% of companies said corruption was widespread. The corruption survey has been carried out since 2013 every two years. The latest one was carried out by phone in…

ZAGREB, December 10, 2019 - For Jadran Galenski Laboratorij (JGL) the Russian market is crucial because 40% of its revenues comes from that market and the company is the second largest Croatian business in Russia, JGL Board chair Ivo Usmiani said during a visit by Russian Ambassador Anvar Azimov to that Rijeka-based pharmaceutical company on Monday. Ambassador Azimov toured JGL units, talking with his hosts about the company's operations, markets, problems related to business operations in Russia, etc. JGL specialises in the development and production of sterile products with added value in ophthalmology and otolaryngology. Company officials say that the…

ZAGREB, December 9, 2019 - The free trade agreement between the European Union and Australia is a chance to develop Croatian-Australian economic relations, a panel discussion was told at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on Monday. "Trade between the EU and Australia is about 55 billion dollars and Croatia participates with 23.8 million dollars. We cannot be satisfied with it, even though most of it relates to our exports to Australia. That's why we see the EU-Australia free trade agreement as an additional impetus to our bilateral relations," HGK Vice-President for Industry and Energy Tomislav Radoš said. He said…

ZAGREB, December 9, 2019 - Croatia's commodity exports reached 94.1 billion kuna in the first ten months of 2019, an increase of 5% over the same period in 2018, while imports increased by 5.3% to 155.4 billion kuna, initial data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) showed on Monday. The foreign trade deficit in the first ten months of this year was 61.3 billion kuna, or 3.33 billion kuna higher than at the same time last year. Coverage of imports by exports was 60.5%, down from 60.7% in the first ten months of 2018. Export to EU member states…

ZAGREB, December 8, 2019 - Negative interest rates are appearing in some European money and sovereign bond markets but not on Croatian bonds, the Croatian Banking Association (HUB) says in its latest analysis, noting that the necessary prerequisites must be created for negative interest on loans and that in Croatia's case, this is not realistic for now. The HUB cites Eurostat data on ten-year sovereign bond yields in local currencies. The governments with negative yields in September were Denmark (-0.59%), Germany (-0.59%), Ireland (-0.01%), France (-0.28%), Latvia (-0.11%), Luxembourg (-0.50%), the Netherlands (-0.43%), Austria (-0.30%), Slovenia (-0.16%), Slovakia (-0.34%), Finland…

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of December, 2019, although the Čakovec-based company Medjimurjeplet has built its brand and business on the production of quality furniture for outdoor spaces based on wood and metal, in recent years, an increasing part of their business has been the production of parquet, windows and doors. So far, these assortments have in principle been separated through various presentation and sales channels, but today they have been integrated through their concept stores in Zagreb and in Munich. Just last week, an exhibition and sales centre was opened in Zagreb, which houses almost the…

Croatian businessman and lobbyist, Mario Rendulić, current President of the Chinese Southeast European Business Association (CSEBA) was just elected to the Executive Board of the Silk Road Chamber of International Commerce (SRCIC). The fourth annual summit of businesses from various countries connected through the Silk Road is taking place in the Chinese town of Xi'an, where the leadership of the SRCIC association is located currently. At the moment, the Chamber consists of 218 organisational members from 82 countries, including national chambers of commerce, business associations, and other major international business platforms, named after the Silk Road, a network of trade routes…