Business

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - Croatia's industrial production increased by 3 percent in July 2019 compared with the same month in 2018, returning to positive territory following a considerable decline in June, the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) said on Monday. According to calendar-adjusted data, industrial output in July increased by 4.8 percent from the previous month and by 3 percent from July last year. Following a comparatively strong decline in June, of 5.6 percent, the volume of industrial production returned to positive values in July, analysts at Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said in their comment on the DZS report. Compared…

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - Rijeka's 3. Maj shipyard has signed agreements with suppliers and sub-contractors to defer the majority of its debts or approximately 111 million kuna, which is about 82% of all claims by creditors, so we believe that we have met the government's first condition, the chair of the shipyard's supervisory board, Juraj Šoljić, told Hina on Monday. Šoljić said that the shipyard's total debt amounted to 138 million kuna, excluding overdue wages and contributions on wages of 34 million kuna, adding that he expected more agreements to arrive by post. "Without pre-empting the Finance Ministry's decision,…

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Sunday the changes to income tax rules entering into force would give employers an additional possibility to raise their employees' salaries. "All the changes are in line with what we have been announcing," he told reporters. He said the pay rises would eventually mean higher living standards and that this was in line with the changes made in the previous three tax reform rounds, notably the last one from the end of 2018, when the non-taxable amount for bonuses was raised from 2,500 to 7,500 kuna. The minister said…

ZAGREB, August 31, 2019 - In the first half of 2019, banks in Croatia reported pre-tax profits in the amount of 3.8 billion kuna, which is 347.9 million kuna (10%) more than in the same period of 2018, show the latest figures from the Croatian National Bank (HNB). The data refer to a total of 20 banks operating on 30 June this year, which was three fewer than at the end of June 2018. The downsizing has been actually the result of mergers: in October 2018, Veneto Bank was added to Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ), in December 2018, Splitska Banka…

August 31, 2019 - A star-studded lineup of Croatian entrepreneurial excellence will assemble in Zagreb on September 12 for a stimulating one-day conference on the entrepreneurial mindset. About 18 months ago, I received a phone call from Nenad Bakic, one of Croatia's most successful and high-profile entrepreneurs. Along with Mate Rimac, Bakic was named recently in the Financial Times' list of top 100 digital champions of Europe. Shortly before he called me, Bakic had taken over the ailing Varteks company in Varazdin, and he was in town to turn things around (and you can read more about the Nenad Bakic…

ZAGREB, August 31, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday received representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) headed by the bank's vice president Pierre Heilbronn, the government said in a press release, underscoring that cooperation between EBRD and Croatia and the implementation of projects were continuing. "Prime Minister Plenković expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation with the EBRD thus far which is reflected in 3.8 billion euro in funding that the EBRD has approved until now to finance 210 projects in Croatia in the field of transport infrastructure, energy, shipbuilding, tourism, local infrastructure and environment…

As Gordana Grgas/Novac writes on the 30th of August, 2019, Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk, the owner of the huge Dogus holding which owns several marinas and luxury hotels in Croatia (Dogus Group Croatia), announced this week that he is ready to sell assets worth up to 800 million euros as part of a debt restructuring plan, as was reported by Bloomberg. The Dogus Group Croatia company, as they confirmed, are not included in these sales plans. The sale of hotels, restaurants, offices and shares of the Turkish giant, conducted this year and last year (mostly outside of Turkey), has reached…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - The Zagreb County Office of the State Prosecutor on Wednesday filed 13 indictments against a total of 29 suspects for wrongdoings in 13 companies and according to media reports those indictments refer to executives in companies that were large suppliers to Agrokor group and to Agrokor's founder Ivica Todorić. The indictees who were presumably senior executives in Kraš, Sokol Marić, Tisak, Konzum, Agrofructus, AVT, Nexus and Granolio, are charged with forging official documents. The local office of the State Prosecutor on Wednesday stated that it had submitted the 13 indictments to a Zagreb municipal court…

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of August, 2019, this building was built about forty years ago and is the latest hospital facility in the Rijeka area, yet most of the hospital's medical facilities are housed in a building that is more than one hundred years old. Back at the beginning of this month, the government approved the director of the Clinical Hospital Centre (KBC) Rijeka to conclude contracts with contractors for the second phase of the construction of a new hospital in Rijeka, popularly called the ''mother and child'' hospital, a new construction site will be opened in…

ZAGREB, August 28, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday described the GDP growth of 2.4% in the second quarter of 2019 as good and positive news, underscoring that the government is doing everything to strengthen the Croatian economy's resilience to a possible new recession. The State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) on Wednesday released its initial estimate according to which GDP in Q2 rose by 2.4% on the year. That is the 20th quarter in a row that GDP increased but significantly slower than the 3.9% rate in Q1. "That means that we are at the level of the…