Business

ZAGREB, 7 May 2022 - The confidence of international credit rating agencies shows that Croatia has remained on the right track after a strong economic recovery in 2021, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday. His statement came after the Fitch Ratings agency reaffirmed Croatia's investment rating at BBB with a positive outlook. The government sees this as an indication of the country's economic stability while dealing with the consequences of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, inflationary pressures and other challenges. The trend was reversed during the term of the present government. Fitch restored the credit rating to BB+ in…

May the 7th, 2022 - The continuing issues faced by the Croatian labour force (or lack of it, to be more precise) could be solved by altering a current law and increasing the limit on how much students are allowed to earn without them, or usually their parents, facing tax issues. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, irritated employers have rightly pointed out that the income threshold after which the right to tax relief is lost for students is much too low, and that raising it would encourage students to not only seek out employment, but to be willing to work more.…

ZAGREB, 6 May (2022) - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices ended the week in red, with the Crobex falling by 0.92% to 2,110 points and the Crobex10 by 0.87% to 1,257 points. Turnover at the close of the trading session was HRK 10.8 million, about 2.3 million higher than on Thursday. An additional HRK 4.9 million was generated by a block transaction with the Atlantic retail group stock at HRK 1,620 per share. The Atlantic Group stock also generated the highest turnover in the regular session, of HRK 1.74 million. Its price remained stable at HRK 1,640. Three more…

ZAGREB, 6 May (2022) - Žito Group and E.ON Solar, a company that is part of the E.ON Croatia Group, have signed a contract for the construction of a solar power plant on the premises of the vegetable oil factory in Čepin, which is expected to help save 2.6 gigawatt hours of energy a year and should be put into operation in June. The new solar power plant will be the eight solar power plant Žito Group operates as part of its energy and environmental strategy. The seven previously built plants have a total capacity of 2.3 megawatts. The new plant…

ZAGREB, 5 May 2022 - Delivering a ruling on the right to compensation for overpaid interest for loans pegged to a foreign currency after conversion, the EU Court of Justice has found that these loans fall outside the scope of the consumer protection directive. The court published a decision on Thursday saying that the directive of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts should be interpreted in such a way that contractual provisions that reflect national law under which the seller or service provider was obliged to propose to the consumer an amendment to their original contract by…

May the 5th, 2022 - Three large Croatian egg farms have collapsed and their management has stated that they plan to remain open and in function only until the end of this week. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian poultry and egg producers are currently navigating troubled waters. Just as they announced before Easter, some are closing down their farms because their production costs have become too high to be able to cope with. RTL discovered that three large Croatian egg farms are set to shut their doors, and the producers have also been complaining that the traders must be deaf…

ZAGREB, 4 May 2022 - Retail trade in the European Union and the euro area in March fell slightly reflecting a decrease in fuel sales whereas in Croatia it increased strongly, the latest Eurostat report released on Wednesday indicates. In March, the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade decreased by 0.2% in the EU and by 0.4% in the euro area compared with February, when it increased by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. The volume of retail trade in the EU and euro area dropped the most at petrol stations, by 3% and 2.9% respectively. The retail sale of non-food products also decreased, by 0.7%…

May the 4th, 2022 - Croatian Motorways (HAC/Hrvatske autoceste) is set to spend a massive amount on a ''makeover'' of sorts. Here's precisely how a total of 263 million kuna will be spent. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, Croatian Motorways will soon get to work on the demolition of Motel Rastovica on the A3 Bregana-Zagreb-Lipovac motorway. A job tender worth around three million kuna is now underway, but, as was confirmed by Croatian Motorways, no new content will be built on the site after the removal of that facility. What are set to be removed are old and neglected motel and…

ZAGREB, 3 May 2022 - The Finance Ministry on Tuesday sold €1.04 billion worth of treasury bills at 0.1% interest, which is more than last year when treasury bills were issued at negative interest rates, when financial institutions actually paid the state treasury to hold treasury bills. Ahead of the maturity of €1.2 billion worth of treasury bills, issued before the previous financial crisis, the ministry today offered €1.2 billion worth of bills for subscription and financial institutions offered €1.39 billion in total. The ministry then accepted the offers totalling  €1.04 billion. The new treasury bill has a maturity of one year. The balance of subscribed treasury bills has…

ZAGREB, 3 May 2022 - Opposition Bridge party MP Zvonomir Troskot said on Tuesday that Croatia should postpone the introduction of the euro, warning that its introduction would cause an additional rise in prices. "The national economy is not ready yet for euro introduction, that decision should be postponed during this time with the war current in Ukraine, armament in Europe and high inflation. It would not be a prudent move," he told a news conference. Troskot warned that the introduction of the euro would cause additional inflation, recalling in that context the introduction of the euro in Slovenia and noting…