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ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) on Tuesday went up slightly amid lower liquidity, with four stocks generating a turnover of more than one million kunas each. The Crobex went up by 0.25% to 2,021.15 points while the Crobex10 rose by 0.41% to 1,237.02 points. Regular trading amounted to HRK 8.6 million, 2.9 million less than on Monday. The stock of the HT telecommunications company turned over HRK 1.77 million, with its price going up 0.27% to HRK 183.50. The Podravka food company stock generated a turnover of HRK 1.55 million, with its price going up by 0.64% to…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - In the past few months inflation perception has grown strongly and the perceived inflation rate now exceeds 24%, which is much higher than the realized consumer inflation rate of 3.8% in October, the central bank (HNB) has said. Based on data from a survey on consumer confidence, Lucija Fioretti, Karlo Kotarac, and Davor Kunac of the Croatian National Bank's (HNB) research department have analyzed changes in inflation perceptions in Croatia as well as the reasons for the recent divergence between inflation perceptions and the realized consumer inflation rate. Since an unusually great divergence between inflation perceptions and the realized inflation…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Sandra Benčić of the Green-Left Bloc (ZLB) on Tuesday said that they had collected 34 lawmakers' signatures to file an appeal to the Constitutional Court to test the constitutionality of COVID-certificates. "As we announced before, we are sending the request to the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the decision on COVID certificates, not because of its contents, or COVID certificates as such, but rather the way the decision was made," Benčić said in Parliament House. She believes that all decisions that restrict human rights during the pandemic, which is deemed to be an emergency situation,…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Next year is very important because we expect a final decision on Croatia's accession to the Schengen and euro areas, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday, recalling that Croatia has access to about €25 billion from European sources for this decade. Addressing a launch conference for the Croatian-language special annual edition of the global magazine The Economist, Plenković said that Croatia has about €25 billion at its disposal for this decade, including regular funds from the seven-year European budget, funds from the NextGenerationEU, and about one billion euro for reconstruction following last year's devastating earthquakes. "That is more…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - The Agency for Science and Higher Education on Tuesday held a closing conference for a project aimed at improving the quality of higher education, describing the project as an important step in developing the Croatian higher education system. The value of the project, launched in 2016, was HRK 20 million, of which 85 percent was provided by the European Social Fund. Project manager Ivan Bišćan said that 54 procedures for the re-accreditation of higher education institutions and 114 procedures for the re-accreditation of postgraduate university programs had been carried out in the four years.  The Agency has…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Croatia has registered 3,071 new coronavirus cases and 56 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Tuesday. Currently, there are 21,396 active cases in the country. Among them are 2,253 infected persons receiving hospital treatment, 315 of whom are on ventilators, and 18,937 people are self-isolating. Compared with last Tuesday, the number of new cases decreased by 191 and the number of deaths fell by four cases. To date, 657,726 people have been registered as having contracted the SARS CoV-2 virus, of whom 11,722 have died and 624,608…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Labour Minister Josip Aladrović said on Tuesday that the job keeping measure was intended to remain in place until the end of the year in sectors where it was necessary and that Croatia was now moving to the job creation stage, for which more than a billion kuna has been set aside. "We have secured some funding for the shortened working hours measure and for the job keeping measure. We hope and expect that these measures will not be intense next year because we are moving to the job creation stage, for which we have secured…

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - The average net monthly salary in Zagreb for September 2021 was HRK 8,205 (€1,095), up 5.5% on the year, the city said on Monday. The average net monthly salary in Croatia for September 2021 was HRK 7,108 and amounted to 87% of the average take-home pay in the capital city for that month. In Zagreb, the highest average net monthly salary was paid in crude oil and natural gas extraction, in the amount of HRK 13,465, while the lowest was in the manufacture of leather and similar products (HRK 4,524). The average gross monthly salary in Zagreb for September 2021…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Monday he doubted the EU would reach a consensus on imposing sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, as advocated by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. "Croatia advocates dialogue. It's in our interest to insist on dialogue, to convince all leaders that it's necessary to view and experience Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign and integral country, and that there's no room for any separatism," Grlić Radman said. Baerbock today took part in a Foreign Affairs Council meeting for the first time in her term and said the efforts…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Judging by citizens' spending in the first half of this month, weeks of record-high spending are ahead in Croatia. In the past two weeks, fiscal cash registers recorded a turnover of almost HRK 7.4 billion (€1 billion). Since the bulk of consumer consumption is concentrated in the second half of December, one can expect an additional HRK 12 billion in turnover, Večernji List daily said on Tuesday. Last year's extra holiday consumption was about HRK 1 billion, with fiscal receipts totaling HRK 15.8 billion. According to the Tax Administration, last week Croatians spent 20% more on average than…