Business

ZAGREB, 10 March 2022 - Hrvatski Telekom (HT) and Nokia on Thursday tested in Rijeka Nokia's 25G PON broadband optical network, a new generation of optical networks that significantly enhances the speed of data transfer, HT said. The first national testing of Nokia's network was performed in HT's Rijeka laboratory, as part of which high speeds were achieved, of 20 gigabits per second. "25G PON technology is ten times faster than GPON technology, whereby HT enabled a gigabit broadband connection for the first time in 2007. It is also two and a half times faster than XGS-PON technology that has been in use…

March 10th, 2022 - The company Q from Zagreb was declared one of the ten best web developers in the world by Clutch, the world’s leading research agency for IT company ranking. This is the first time that Q joins the elite top 10. In the last two years, the Croatian company repeatedly made Clutch’s top 20 list, reports Poslovni dnevnik. ‘We work hard to be better every single day, and making Clutch’s top 10 list has been a strategic goal of ours for the last two years, ever since we were ranked among the top 20 companies in the…

ZAGREB, 10 March 2022 - Seafarers employed in the Jadrolinija Croatian national shipping company on Thursday rallied in the port of Gaženica, Zadar, to protest against low pays and the model of overtime payment. A leader of the independent trade union of seafarers in Jadrolinija, Nikica Grbić, said that the rally had brought together over a hundred seafarers who expressed their dissatisfaction with the retirement package. Gbrić said that upon retirement, former seafarers were paid only HRK 8,000 as severance pay. The unionist said that the negotiations on the national collective agreement had been ongoing for a decade. The disgruntled seafarers criticized the current acting…

March the 10th, 2022 - Without an increase in Croatian tourism sector employee wages, the very existence of some companies and businesses could well be called into question, especially following two years of coronavirus-induced stagnation. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, after two years of stagnation in the material rights of workers in the Croatian tourism sector, this year, all major domestic tourism companies have decided to make a significant step forward in increasing the material rights of their workers. Valamar, Plava Laguna, Aminess, Maistra, Jadran and LRH will all pay their employees the maximum non-taxable amount as allowed by current…

ZAGREB, 9 March 2022 - The government's proposal to introduce the euro as the official currency in Croatia on 1 January 2023 divided MPs on Wednesday, with some seeing multiple benefits and others claiming that it will further lower living standards. Darko Klasić of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) said entry to the euro area would give Croatia and its economy a huge geostrategic umbrella in turbulent times. Krešo Beljak of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) said Croatia was "finally" introducing the euro. Anka Mrak Taritaš of GLAS said entering the euro area was a success for every country and…

ZAGREB, 9 March 2022 - Croatia's banking system is stable, highly-capitalized and liquid, and the country's integration in the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) and efforts to adopt the euro have additional boosted those features, the Croatian Banking Association (HUB) said on Wednesday. The association underscores that the capital adequacy ratio of all the Croatian banks reached 25.6% at the end of 2021, "making the Croatian banking system one of the best capitalised banking systems in the world and one of the most developed in southeast Europe, which is why the system is fully prepared for the coming challenging period." Credit institutions…

ZAGREB, 9 March 2022 - The Croatia's industrial inventories at the end of January 2022 rose by 2.9% from the previous month and fell by 6.4% compared with January 2021, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) shows. Broken down by main industrial groupings, inventories of capital goods increased the most month on month, by 12.4%. Stocks of of intermediate goods grew by 7.7%, and of non-durable consumer goods by 1.2%, while inventories of durable consumer goods by 0.7%. On the other hand, inventories of energy dropped by 19.4% month on month. Year-on-year, inventories of capital goods were cut by 40.6%, and of…

ZAGREB, 8 March 2022 - Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić on Tuesday visited the Heineken Croatia production plant in Karlovac which has invested €10 million in green projects over the past ten years as part of its sustainable business strategy. We had great support from our employees, consumers and the local community in that, underscored Heineken Croatia's CEO Marta Bulhak. Ćorić assessed that the company is a good example of "what Croatia needs because all industry has to move to a green transition and to undergo digitisation and transfer to a circular economy." He congratulated the company, that…

ZAGREB, 8 March 2022 - Despite greater employability and more women in leading positions they are still insufficiently represented in the economy, particularly at the highest levels which indicates that there are still significant legal, structural and cultural obstacles to their full equality, it was heard at a conference on Tuesday. The conference  - An economy without prejudice strengthening the economy by empowering women - was organised on the occasion of International Women's Day by the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) and International Network of Business Women. The status of women in Croatian society hasn't changed drastically despite a lot of…

7 March 2022 - Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts on Monday revised down their estimate of Croatia's economic growth in 2022 from 4.4% to 4%, underscoring uncertainty and negative risks, particularly regarding investments. The analysts said that in light of the war in Ukraine and growing uncertainty, their forecast for the euro area economy has been marked down by 0.7 percentage points to 3.3%. "The expected trends will have a negative, albeit a limited impact on Croatia's GDP. In the scenario that excludes the possibility of the war spreading to other countries of the EU and/or Western Balkans and implies, at least for the time being,…