ZAGREB, 6 April, 2021 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices broke a positive streak on Tuesday, with the Crobex decreasing by 0.05% to 1,875.57 points and the Crobex10 by 0.17% to 1,177.76 points.

Turnover at the close of the trading session was HRK 5.7 million, about 1.4 million higher than on Thursday, the last trading day before the Easter break.

None of the stocks passed the turnover mark of one million kuna. The highest turnover, of HRK 777,200, was generated by the Valamar hotel company, whose stock fell by 0.35% to HRK 28.80 per share.

A total of 36 stocks traded today, with 14 of them recording share price decreases, 9 registering price increases and 13 remaining stable in price.

(€1 = HRK 7.565435)

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ZAGREB, 6 April, 2021 - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised down its growth forecast for the Croatian economy for this year from 6.0% to 4.7%, expecting a pickup in economic activity and a return to the pre-pandemic level in 2022.

The Croatian economy contracted by 9.0% in 2020, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, reaffirming its forecast from last autumn. The national economy is expected to grow by 5.0% in 2022 and thus exceed the pre-pandemic growth level.

The IMF included Croatia among the emerging European economies that are expected to record the highest growth rates this year and the next.

This year, only Turkey and Romania are projected to achieve higher growth rates, of 6%, and the Serbian economy is expected to grow at a rate of 5.0%. Next year, a higher rate is forecast only for the Hungarian economy, of 5.7%.

The economic activity of the emerging European economies should rise by 4.4% this year, half a percentage point higher than projected last autumn, while next year it is expected to slow down to 3.9%.

Projections of current account deficit and unemployment revised down

Croatia's current account deficit is forecast at 2.3% of GDP this year, which is 0.8 percentage points lower than in the October report.

In 2020 the current account deficit was 3.5%, up by 0.3 percentage points from the autumn report, while in 2022 it is projected to drop to 1.6%.

The unemployment rate for this year is forecast at 9.4%, down from 10.3% projected last autumn. In 2020, the rate was 9.2% and in 2022 it should slide to 9.0%.

In 2021, consumer prices are expected to increase by 0.7%, compared to 0.8% projected in October. In 2020, the inflation rate was 0.3% as forecast in October, while in 2022 consumer prices are expected to pick up to 1.2%.

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ZAGREB, 1 April, 2021 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices increased for the fifth consecutive trading day on Thursday, the last trading day before the Easter holidays, and they saw a strong increase on the week after two weeks of decline.

The Crobex indices went up by 0.23% on Thursday, the Crobex to 1,876 points and the Crobex10 to 1,179 points.

Week-on-week, the Crobex increased by 1.54% and the Crobex10 by 2.18%.

Today's regular turnover was HRK 4.3 million, or HRK 2.7 million less than on Wednesday.

The HT telecommunications company generated the highest turnover of HRK 1.26 million. The price of its shares went up by 0.26% to HRK 192.5 per share.

The Atlantic Grupa turned over HRK 1.25 million. The price of its shares closed at HRK 1,550 per share, up by 1.31%.

A total of 33 stocks traded today, with 13 of them recording share price increases, 11 registering share price decreases and 9 remaining stable in price.

Today was the last trading day this week because the ZSE is closed on Good Friday.

(€1 = HRK 7.563871)

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ZAGREB, 31 March, 2021 - The Zagreb Stock Exchange indices on Wednesday increased for the fourth trading day in a row, the Crobex by 0.23% to 1,872 points and the Crobex10 by 0.56% to 1,177 points.

Regular turnover exceeded HRK 7 million. The most traded stock was the HT telecom, turning over HRK 1.37 million. It closed at HRK 192 per share, up 1.05%.

Forty stocks traded today, with 15 going up in price and 13 going down while 12 were stable.

(€1 = HRK 7.569509)

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ZAGREB, 30 March (Hina) - The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices on Tuesday went up by around one percent, following an increase in the value of indices on European stock markets, with investors focusing on the Podravka food and pharmaceutical company.

The Crobex went up by 0.89% to 1,867 points while the Crobex10 rose by 1.08% to 1,170 points.

Even though many European countries are in lockdown to prevent the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic, European stock markets are growing as investors hope economic recovery will accelerate.

Regular turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange today amounted to close to HRK 5 million, around HRK 400,000 more than on Monday.

The only stock that crossed the million kuna turnover mark was Podravka, which generated a turnover of HRK 1.05 million, with its price going up by 2.27% to HRK 540.

A total of 35 stocks traded today, with 12 of them recording share price increases, 6 registering price decreases and 17 remaining stable in price.

(€1 = HRK 7.567224)

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March 30, 2021 - The talk of the new marina for super yachts in Rijeka, Porto Baroš, brings both the hype of development and concerns for public interest.

Porto Baroš in Rijeka, a marina with the potential of 500 ties, is the subject of a public call to be assigned the concession for the next 30 years. The call offers the possibility of expanding to the travel port's entire area, reports the Rijeka-based Novi List daily newspaper. The call was open a month ago. The decision is expected to be known in the following ten days, after which the Ministry of Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure will decide to assign the concession that will be delivered to the Croatian government.

The trading company ACI-Gitone, owned by ACI (Adriatic Croatia International Club) and Lürssen (German yacht company), answered the public call with an investment offer of 363,7 million kunas.

As Novi List learns, ACI- Gitone plans to ask for the expansion of concession to the area owned by Rijeka Port Authority and currently functions as „the port for big yachts". If approved, the Rijeka marina would become the biggest in all of Croatia.

Oleg Butković, minister of the Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure, is very happy about the offer of ACI-Gitone.

„This investment makes me happy as we know that with such a marina capable of hosting megayachts comes a series of additional services. Rijeka and its surroundings must take such opportunity", said minister Butković.

Mayoral candidate critical of the offer

On the other hand, the left-green party Možemo! (We can!) mayoral candidate for Rijeka Nebojša Zelić is opposed to the investment, says Novi List.

Zelić adds he has no problem with the concession for Baroš, but he has issues with the idea of expanding concession to the larger area of Travel coast and Molo Longo.

Nebojša Zelić, screenshot / Možemo! Politička platforma

„This is against public interest given that the concession is given to a minimum of 30 years and there is a possibility that the citizens could be denied access to the sea. That's problematic as it opposes the law of concessions which forbids changing the subject of the public call and in this case that is the expansion of the concession", said Zelić.

He points out that Rijeka's waterfront and Molo Longo unlike Baroš are not nautical tourism and that experience showed how much these places are valuable to the locals. „If these places are shabby, that's the problem of bad management by Rijeka's Port Authority and citizens can't be the hostages of bad management by the Port and the City of Rijeka", said Zelić. He also accused the leading party Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for controlling the most valuable city property through Port Authorities. Zelić's party colleague Sandra Benčić said that the current General Urban plan in Rijeka disables nautical tourism port on Rijeka's waterfront and Moro Longo. She says that can change and that HDZ is counting on it if they get the majority in the city council on the upcoming local elections in May.

„I believe that Rijeka citizens will know to say no to denying access to the sea. We will publicly step out in front of the government to disrupt the expansion of the concession and prevent HDZ's interest being above the public's interest, and we will fight in the parliament too", announced Benčić.

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ZAGREB, 26 March, 2021 - A HRK 12.5 million EU grant agreement for the construction of a composting plant in the southern town of Metković was signed on Friday by Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić and the director of the local Čistoća waste management company, Tomislav Jakić.

The project, which will be implemented as part of the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020, is worth more than HRK 24 million, of which 50% is co-financed by the EU.

Ćorić said that the composting plant would serve Metković as well as Opuzen and neighbouring communities.

The plant's annual capacity is 5,000 tonnes and it guarantees that biodegradable waste in the River Neretva valley will be managed in the best way possible, said the minister.

Dubrovnik-Neretva County head Nikola Dobroslavić said that Metković was the most advanced local government unit in terms of waste management.

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ZAGREB, 26 March, 2021 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices closed mixed on Friday, amid modest trading.

After falling for two days, the Crobex index rebounded slightly, rising by 0.09% to 1,848.06 points. The Crobex10, on the other hand, finished in the red for the third trading day, decreasing by 0.06% to 1,154.63 points.

Turnover at the close of the trading session was HRK 5.97 million, roughly the same as on Thursday.

The bulk of the turnover was generated by the stock of the Podravka food company, turning over HRK 3.4 million. The price of its share closed down 1.53% at HRK 516.

No other stock passed the turnover mark of one million kuna.

A total of 37 stocks traded today, with 14 of them recording share price increases, 10 registering price decreases and 10 remaining stable in price.

(€1 = HRK 7.570196)

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ZAGREB, 26 March, 2021 - The Voice of Entrepreneurs association warned on Friday of the difficult position of travel agencies in a year of the pandemic, during which they had lost over 90% of revenue, adding that the government had done nothing to help them.

"The media say that travel agencies have received billions of kuna in aid from the state, which is simply not true. Also, (Education) Minister Fuchs and (Tourism) Minister Brnjac are asking travel agencies to find the money to return vouchers given to passengers, and a new law is being mentioned, under which the agency is obliged to give its clients a refund within 15 days. However, it isn't said that travel agencies have on average lost over 90% of revenue over the past year," the association said in a press release.

It added that the owners of travel agencies could not get loans to refund their clients, that they were forced to sell their own real estate to cover the expenses and that they had not received a single penny of help from the state or any other institution.

The only aid they received is HRK 4,000 monthly grant for workers, but for every employee, the employer has to cover the additional cost of transport and other fixed costs, for which no solution has been found to date, the association said.

It said that fixed costs had not been covered either, and since they were closed, agencies could not cover all the costs.

Travel agencies "were not closed by the decision of the national civil protection team, but their operation is completely restricted by government measures," the association stressed.

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ZAGREB, 25 March, 2021 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices fell on Thursday for the second day in a row, with the Crobex dropping by 0.38% to 1,846.46 points and the Crobex10 by 0.57% to 1,155.33 points.

Turnover at the close of the trading session was HRK 5.88 million, about 2 million higher than on Wednesday. An additional HRK 2.5 million was generated by a block transaction with shares of the Atlantic retail group, at HRK 1,470 per share.

The only two stocks to pass the turnover mark of one million kuna were the HT telecommunications company and the Podravka food company, each turning over HRK 1.1 million. The price of the HT share decreased by 0.53% to HRK 188, while the Podravka share shrank in price by 1.87% to HRK 524.

The winner of the day was the Sunce Hoteli hotel company, which saw the price of its share jump by 6.02% to HRK 176 following the announcement that it was in the process of being taken over by the Eagle Hills Zagreb Real Estate company, owned by a businessman from the United Arab Emirates.

A total of 37 stocks traded today, with 13 of them recording share price increases and as many registering share price decreases, while 11 remained stable in price.

(€1 = HRK 7.570626)

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