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. Therefore, they've suggested that the threshold be raised to 30,000 kuna, with different treatment if the taxpayer (their parent) has more children. This could solve the problems faced by the Croatian labour market, particularly when it comes to seasonal and tourism employment.

According to tportal, this initiative from the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) is also being strongly supported by the president of the Croatian Tourism Association, Veljko Ostojic, who very formly believes that the greater engagement of students in seasonal jobs in the tourism sector would reduce the need for the import of foreign labour, and the administrative issues and ridiculous waiting times for work permits that come with that.

''We've proposed to the Government that the non-taxable income limit for dependent members be raised to 30,000 kuna. We believe that in this way, a significant number of people would be activated on the Croatian labour market,'' Ostojic said.

Student work is otherwise regulated by the Student Affairs Act, and the current law on that has been in force since November 2018.

Students are employed through authorised intermediaries, which can be student centres or higher education institutions that have a centre for student standards, provided that they have received approval from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to conduct mediation activities. The law also regulates the minimum hourly wage, which is calculated by dividing the amount of the minimum gross salary by 160. The hourly wage is adjusted once a year, and for 2022 it amounts to 29.30 kuna.

Altering this and increasing the amount students are free to earn without facing issues from the tax man would not only put a gradual stop to importing non-resident staff, but put the Croatian labour market in a far better position when it comes to the height of the summer season, when good staff are increasingly difficult to come by for would-be employers.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

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 and are offering them purchase prices which are much too low, even though the eggs on the shelves have never been more expensive.

This concerning information was also confirmed by the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture. The president of the chamber, Mladen Jakopovic, said: “two or thee are closing, we found out about that informally. Two or three Croatian egg farms will shut. According to our information, that would amount to about five percent of Croatian egg production at this time.''

There is almost no egg producer who isn't facing trouble at this moment in time, and they are thinking about reducing production entirely because the current situation is becoming unbearable.

Magi Lukac, the head of one egg production company, pointed out that the costs are growing every day. “We just managed to raise the prices a bit, and now we've had a new blow with new costs that don't follow the selling prices. We have information that many poultry farmers are going to reduce their capacities,'' he said.

The Republic of Croatia is almost self-sufficient when it comes to egg production, but after the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and the situation with the war in Ukraine, the prices of cereals and energy have skyrocketed, and they complain that traders are not giving them a higher purchase price despite that.

"The price of wheat and corn have grown by 200 percent, soybeans and sunflower meal have gone up by 100 percent, and eggs aren't following that growth. I'm afraid that we will be needing to feed tourists with foreign eggs this year,'' Lukac pointed out for RTL.

The competent ministry says they are preparing additional incentives in order to try to soften the blow being dealt to Croatian egg farms, as well as to businesses directly related to the industry.

Zdravko Barac, the director of the Directorate for Animal Husbandry and Food Quality of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: “Of course we won't allow a shortage of eggs to occur, nor will we allow that for other livestock products. We reacted with a whole series of measures in a difficult period two years ago.''

Five million kuna is intended for poultry farmers, and 2 million kuna for egg producers, and on top of that, some more good news is coming from Brussels.

Mladen Jakopovic, President of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture, pointed out: “It has been agreed that the import of wheat and other cereals into the European Union would be exempt from anyone needing to pay customs duties and associated customs costs. That is 20 million tonnes, which is 20 times more than Croatia's total annual production.''

This temporary measure should take effect in two weeks, but whether or not it will be enough to prevent the locking of the doors of more Croatian egg farms is yet to be seen.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

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% in the EU and 1.2% in the euro area.

An increase in the volume of retail trade was reported only for food products, beverages and tobacco, of 0.6% in the EU and 0.8% in the euro area.

Among the Member States for which data are available, the highest increases were observed in Slovenia (+11.4%), Latvia (+11.1%), and Hungary (+7.3%).

Croatia registered a month-on-month increase in the volume of retail trade of 4.0%, the strongest increase since November 2020. In February it increased by 0.8%.

The largest monthly decreases in the total retail trade volume were registered in Spain (-4.0%), Luxembourg (-3.3%) and France (-1.9%).

The highest year-on-year increases in the total retail trade volume were registered in Slovenia (+25.6%), Estonia (+18.4%) and Malta (+16.4%).

The largest decreases were observed in Denmark (-11.0%), Spain (-4.8%), and Belgium (-3.9%).

The volume of retail trade in Croatia in March increased by 5.5% year on year after a 0.7% decrease in February.

Romania registered a similar increase in the volume of retail trade, of 5.4%.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

May the 4th, 2022 - If Croatian inflation continues and becomes worse, posing more issues for the pockets of the country's already struggling residents following coronavirus-induced lockdowns and restrictions, just what does the government have up its sleeve to combat it? Finance Minister Zdravko Maric has claimed that there is still ''munition'' to be released in this sense.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric also answered the question as to whether the Croatian inflation rate will end up reaching double-digit figures: "I wouldn't go that far. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic all recorded double-digit rates back in March. Some of them even nearly 16 percent. Croatia hasn't done so yet,'' he said.

Maric spoke on Dnevnik Nova TV about problematic fuel prices, the situation on the gas market, Croatian inflation, the impact the current situation is having on the Eurozone, which Croatia is on schedule to join in 2023, as well as the current state of the Croatian budget.

Minister Maric first commented on whether the acceleration of Croatian inflation is going to continue to pose a very serious threat to the country because of everything that is unfolding globally, with the ongoing Ukraine war included.

"According to the latest projections, the average rate this year is 7.8 percent. Considering that the last published data said it would be 7.3, and before that the inflation rates were slightly lower, unfortunately my answer to your question is yes," he stated, before going on to discuss the aforementioned topic of potential of double-digit Croatian inflation.

Inflation has suddenly become a key variable on Croatia's path to the Eurozone, which it is due to enter early next year.

"We've been talking about the budget for years, and in the end, neither the public debt nor the budget deficit is a topic. Croatia has been exactly between the Eurozone and the EU average for the last 12 months," he said.

"In the middle of this month, we'll have the data for April, both for Croatia and for all EU countries. This will be the last input that enters the convergence report. At the beginning of June, the European Central Bank and the European Commission will publish this report separately. I really believe we'll get a positive outcome. The official decision should come in early July,'' added the minister. He also said that he wasn't in favour of delaying Croatia's entry into the Eurozone, which some are calling for owing to this dire situation. He believes that the Eurozone shows the best benefits during times of crisis. VAT for certain product categories was planned to be reduced when Croatia switches to the Euro, but the government slashed it beforehand anyway.

"If necessary, we have more ammunition to help people out in this situation," said the minister, before speaking about the healthcare system and whether he sees any room for much needed reforms there."Drugstores write to us periodically, both to my colleague Health Minister Vili Beros and to me. We have a fair relationship. Unfortunately, the payment deadlines for both hospitals and pharmacies have risen again. They've reached a level of over 180 days, and for some hospitals, that level is now over 200 days,'' said the Minister, and when asked how much the healthcare system's debt is and whether he knows how many ''holes'' there are when it comes to that, he answered: ''Unfortunately, I do know because every month that hole increases, meaning obligations grow, and it's been between 400 and 500 million over the last few months.'' he stated.

For more on Croatian inflation, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.

April the 30th, 2022 - The highly successful and by now very well known Croatian company Microblink is set to hire even more people throughout this year, it is also planning further expansion.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, one of the leading domestic high-tech companies, the Croatian company Microblink, which operates globally developing solutions on artificial intelligence (AI), is accelerating its business momentum this year and expects revenue growth of 50 percent and the hiring of more than 450 employees, the company said in a recent statement.

"Over the past year, we've transformed the company into a global technology enterprise with a New York office and clients around the world. We also undertook rebranding and developed a lot of tools to help identify the needs of our users,'' said the global vice president of Microblink for operations and director for Croatia Igor Strejcek.

He stressed that the Croatian company Microblink's overall vision is to enable the wide global use of AI, with the further development of their AI platform for which they want to be the ‘AI Power House’ and perhaps one day see it become a separate part of the company itself.

''It's quite difficult to say whether this will all pan out by the end of this year or next year, but we're on the right track and we're heading in that direction,'' added the global vice president for engineering of AI, Matija Ilijas.

Microblink's AI platform, he added, significantly speeds up and automates the process of developing and delivering AI solutions, with a strong focus placed on data security and protection, and it has so far developed more than 50 advanced AI models running on more than 100 million devices and on average 40 percent more quickly than on competing Google or Apple solutions.

For more information on Croatian companies, entrepreneurs and innovation, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

April the 29th, 2022 - The Croatian inflation wave is currently three times higher than initial government predictions ever thought it would be, which is of course an enormous cause for concern for the vast majority.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, the recently updated macroeconomic projections for this year, presented by the government within the new Convergence Programme, once again did well in confirming just how much various economic forecasts have had their "shelf lives" very much shortened in the face of Croatian inflation.

This is most drastically shown in the revised estimate of the average Croatian inflation rate. The last official projection from the government, made back during the time of the adoption of the state budget for the year 2022, is barely half a year old, and compared to the then projected 2.6 percent, the expected Croatian inflation rate is now three times higher.

To be more precise, the government is currently counting on a rise in consumer prices of as much as 7.8 percent, proving to be much more cautious than the Croatian National Bank has been. The CNB's recently released new forecast of average inflation of 5.4 percent now seems actually quite optimistic.

The war in Ukraine, accompanied by additional supply chain disruptions and the ongoing energy crisis, has intensified inflationary pressures, affecting the prices of energy, transport, food, but also a number of other raw materials and industrial goods.

From next year on, inflation is thankfully expected to slow down, but having in mind the so-called the base effect of this year's large price increase, the projected slowdown to 3.7 percent next year and to 3.5 percent in 2024 certainly doesn't sound all that promising for anyone. As early as this autumn, in addition to lower price growth this year, rates of 2.3 and 2.2 percent have calculated for the first two years following Croatia's transition to the Eurozone.

Given the projections for growth in average gross wages (employees in legal entities), Croatian residents have at least two or three years of falling standards ahead of them, although government projections suggest that a slight recovery in terms of real income could finally begin next year.

According to the calculations from the Ministry of Finance, gross wages are expected to grow by an average of 6.3 percent this year (compared to a 7.8 percent rise in prices). In the first year, the euro should grow by an average of 3.8 percent or slightly above the Croatian inflation rate, and in 2024 by about 3.5 percent, which is one percentage point more than the expected price growth.

A minor surprise came from the government's revision of expected economic growth, although it is currently proving more conservative than the central bank. Instead of growth at the rate of 4.4 percent, which was estimated at GDP growth last autumn, expectations have been reduced down to three percent in real terms this year, with an acceleration forecast of 4.4 percent next year.

With the traditionally significant contribution of personal consumption in the structure of the nation's overall GDP, it remains to be noted that expectations of consumption growth compared to the original projections for this year decreased from 3.2 down to a mere 1.4 percent.

At the same time, following a package of anti-inflation economic measures, estimated at almost five billion kuna, then increased material and costs for Ukrainian refugees, and finally this week's agreement with the unions of state and public services, government spending is expected to grow more than planned for in the state budget. Instead of the then projection of just over two percent, it now counts on a 3.3 percent increase in government spending.

Although the projected growth rate of investment has now been halved (from 12 down to 5.8 percent) this year, over the next few years, public and private sector investment should be the main drivers of growth. Their contribution to Croatian GDP growth this year, at least according to the Ministry of Finance, is estimated to stand at 1.2 percentage points.

Individually, however, following the expectation of 7 percent growth in terms of the exports of goods and services (slightly less than 5 percent for goods and more than nine percent for services), the contribution of exports to Croatia's GDP should be significantly higher than that of investment (about 3.5 percentage points). However, given the rather high import dependence of the Croatian economy, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric explained that "the net contribution of net exports will be slightly positive this year, and slightly negative or neutral over the next three".

For more on Croatian inflation, check out our dedicated politics section.

April the 26th, 2022 - Croatian public debt is continuing to fall, so much so that this decrease has placed the country at the very top of the list of European Union (EU) member states.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the public debt across the European Union and within the Eurozone itself, expressed as a share of GDP, decreased in the fourth quarter of 2021 thanks to the recovery of the economy following the coronavirus crisis, and the Republic of Croatia is among the countries with the biggest decline, a Eurostat report showed last week. At the EU level, public debt as a share of GDP stood at 88.1 percent at the end of 2021.

When it comes to Croatian public debt, consolidated general government debt amounted to 343.6 billion kuna back at the end of December, which corresponded to 79.8 percent of the nation's overall GDP.

Back at the end of September 2021, Croatian public debt amounted to 345.3 billion kuna, which corresponded to 82.7 percent of domestic GDP. At the end of pandemic-dominated 2020, it amounted to 330.4 billion kuna, which corresponded to 87.3 percent of GDP. When it comes to other EU member states, Estonia had the lowest level of public debt at the end of last year, standing at a mere 18.1 percent.

In most European Union countries, public debt as a share of GDP was lower at the end of last year than it was back at the end of 2020, the first year of the global coronavirus pandemic, thanks to a recovery in the economy that was spurred by the easing of epidemiological measures in many countries.

Compared to the end of 2020, public debt decreased the most in Greece and Cyprus, by 13.1 and 11.4 percentage points, respectively. Those countries are followed by Portugal and Croatia, whose public debt as a share of GDP in the fourth quarter was lower by 7.8 and 7.5 percentage points, respectively.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.

April the 22nd, 2022 - Croatian economic analyst Damir Novotny has spoken about the ongoing situation with inflation across the country, the International Monetary Fund's most recent predictions for Croatian GDP growth (or lack of), and when we might expect the very height of this current inflation wave to peak.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, we recently wrote about the IMF predicting Croatia's GDP growth to stand at 2.7 percent this year, which is significantly  less than was predicted back in the autumn forecasts.

Croatian economic analyst Damir Novotny explained to HRT that the Croatian economy did grow last year, making up for the loss of 8 and something percent. He noted that economists see these changes in GDP as an aggregate state, but when it comes to how it will affect a certain strata of society, only time will tell.

“Some will lose, some will gain because, when it comes to inflation, there's a redistribution of economic resources and it's a special tax that isn't declared, but it is still a tax. That said, inflation is still relatively low and we can't say that hyperinflation is a current threat to Croatia, although there is always a danger,'' Croatian economic analyst Damir Novotny said.

"Lower growth forecasts and what is even more important - the uncertainty that this time brings means less demand for loans, and loans are still the most important source of income for banks," said Zdenko Adrovic.

Croatia as a Eurozone member

He also noted that Croatian banks will unfortunately worsen their lending conditions because they are threatened by the growth of bad or non-performing loans, so banks need to insure themselves in some way. As for interest rates, the director of the Croatian Association of Banks, Zdenko Adrovic, expects growth, but not in a sudden sense.

Economic analyst Hrvoje Stojic believes that inflation will reach its maximum in the autumn, especially across the Eurozone, and in this country, this wave will be delayed and will be moved towards the second half of the year.

As for the introduction of the euro in Croatia, it is a political decision more than anything else. Croatian economic analyst Damir Novotny believes that in January 2023, Croatia will be a member of the Eurozone. He also thinks that it will be useful because at this time it would represent a new umbrella that can protect the country from major shocks, so people shouldn't be afraid of that.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

April the 5th, 2022 - The Croatian labour market revival is currently stronger than ever, with the search for staff across many sectors, but of course with the tourism industry dominating above all, never having been higher.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, during the first quarter of 2022, more than 24,000 job advertisements were published on the MojPosao/MyJob portal, which represents a growth of as much as 33 percent when compared to the first quarter of last year and growth of 32 percent when compared to the first quarter of pandemic-dominated 2020. Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to the demand for labour recorded back then, this year, 11 percent more ads looking for employees were published.

Therefore, the MojPosao portal can safely conclude that the Croatian labour market has well and truly recovered from the consequences of the crisis caused by the emergence of the novel coronavirus which resulted in a global pandemic and that the demand for workers across the Republic of Croatia has never been higher.

In human resources and tourism, more workers are needed

Compared to last year, the highest growth in labour demand was recorded in the following sectors: Human resources, where as many as 137 percent more job advertisements were published than in the same period last year, then in Tourism and hospitality (+ 135 percent) and Warehousing and logistics (+ 112 percent).

Last year, a partial lockdown owing to the pandemic lasted until about March and companies hiring seasonal workers were very late in finding and hiring workers for the summer tourist season.

Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, this year, Croatia recorded the highest growth in the categories: Human resources (+ 63 percent), Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (+ 55 percent), Warehousing and logistics (+ 53 percent) and Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (+ 53 percent).

Waiters are still the most sought after workers in Croatia, and in second place come merchants, followed by chefs, warehouse workers, drivers and developers. According to the OVI index from March 2022, the demand for labour is 33 percent higher than it was back during March 2021 and 65 and 27 percent higher than in March 2020 and even March 2019.

The most sought-after occupations in March this year were salesmen, chefs, waiters, warehous workers and drivers. 44 percent of job ads offered a permanent contract, while 43 percent of those ads offered a fixed-term contract. About 1.8 percent of job advertisements mentioned the possibility of working from home, while 3.2 percent of advertisements were aimed at retirees.

For more on the Croatian labour market and working in Croatia, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 1 April (2022) - Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Friday he believed the year 2022 would see a further growth of the national economy.

"I believe that the Croatian economy will show in 2022, just as it did in 2021, the kind of resilience that opened the door to convergence towards the EU average," Ćorić said at a meeting of exporters, organised by Lider business weekly.

Recalling Croatia's growth rate of more than 10% in 2021, the minister said that this year could be like that as well. "That is our goal and I believe that with good exporters, we can make it happen," he said.

Croatian exporters share the fate of all European exporters who are in any way connected with the Russian Federation, while the situation is somewhat easier for exporters with diversified portfolios, whose business is not predominantly oriented to Russia, he said.

Croatia does not have too many companies that are exposed to the Russian market, he said, adding that the current situation could be overcome by companies expanding their market to other European countries, while the government would help by facilitating competition, primarily by enabling greater energy efficiency and lower production costs.

Ćorić announced a HRK 1.9 billion tender to be published by the end of Q2 referring to energy efficiency, which should help the manufacturing industry increase its capacity.

Some of the exporters have liquidity problems due to a decline in business in the Russian Federation, he said, noting that the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) would step in.

DIV Group: Situation requires rapid response

Answering questions from the press, a member of the DIV Group Management Board, Darko Pappo, said that DIV was very much affected by the current situation because two major projects were financed by a Russian-owned bank, with EU sanctions against Russia having prevented the completion of the projects and their refinancing.

"We are talking about two loans amounting to €90 million, with our share totalling around €60 million. That is a huge amount of money and this has made us suspend production," he said, adding that he expected the government to make decisions fast to help the shipbuilding group overcome the situation.

He added that there were end-buyers for both projects, contracts on long-term lease and a repayment schedule, and that, even though state aid is not necessary, the situation requires a prompt government reaction.

The government should support DIV's proposal for the loans to be refinanced with HBOR funding under commercial terms, and one of the loans should be fully repaid by the end of the year while the other would be repaid over a longer period of time, he said.

"That would ensure the continuation of production and normal functioning," he said, adding that both the Brodosplit shipyard and DIV Group operate in the black and employ a large number of workers, which is why they believe the government and HBOR should step in.

Pappo recalled that the recent case of Sberbank showed that a prompt reaction by the government was possible.

AD Plastik focusing on new deals 

Marinko Došen, Management Board chair of plastic car parts manufacturer AD Plastik, said the revenue from the Russian market accounted for 20-25% of total revenue and that the company's two factories in Russia were currently not operating and there was no information on when they could resume operation.

AD Plastik is an export-oriented company, focusing on new deals and expanding to markets where it will be able to operate, Došen said.

As for the rise in energy costs, he said that the cost of energy products had gone up significantly for all businesses and that state aid would be welcome as it would also help them cover the cost of labour for markets that were currently inaccessible.

For more, check out our business section.