ZAGREB, 19 April 2022 - Revenues and the number of people on the payroll of camping businesses and campsite service providers rose on the year from 2016 to 2019, however, they dropped in the pandemic 2020, show the data collected by the Croatian Financial Agency (FINA).

However, the number of businesses in this sub-sector of outdoor tourism has increased from year to year: in 2016, there were 146 camping businesses in Croatia to grow to 165 in 2017, 177 in 2018, 187 in 2019 and 197 in 2020.

They employed as many as 1,354 workers in 2019, to see a drop to 1,169 in 2020, while in 2017 there were 1,226 employees and 1,224 workers were in those businesses in 2018.

Revenues according to annual financial statements

The revenues kept rising from nearly HRK 600 million in 2016, to HRK 662.5 million in 2017 and 855 million in 2018 to reach a record high 874 million in 2019 and in the pandemic 2020 it dropped to 585 million.

Five businesses earn 50% of total revenues in this sub-sector

In 2020, in terms of the volume of revenues and the number of employees, the top performer was the Rovinj-based Valalta.

Its revenues came to HRK 192.3 million, making up 33% of  total revenues in this tourism business activity. There were 333 employees on its payroll, and their average monthly salary was HRK 6,237.

The second-ranking business was Industrial Projects from Fažana, with the revenues of HRK 30 million and 31 employees.

The Zagreb-based Proficio ranked third, with the revenues of HRK 25.6 million and 74 employees.

The remaining top five included the Zagreb-based Noa with HRK 21.4 million in revenues in 2020 and 22 employees, and the Lošinjska Plovidba, based in Mali Lošinj, with 41.4 million kuna in revenues and 52 employees.

These five businesses realised a half of the total revenues of all camping businesses in 2020.

Also, Proficio ended the year in the red and its loss was HRK 18.1 million.

In 2020, 64% of businesses registered in the camping sub-sector registered losses, and 36% wrapped up the year in the black.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

ZAGREB, 2 April 2022 - The total number of workers in the industrial sector in February 2022 rose 0.3% from the previous month and fell 0.9% compared to February 2021, show data from the national statistical office (DZS).

According to the National Classification of Economic Activities (NKD), month-on-month, the number of employees in mining and quarrying dropped by 0.2%, and it went down 0.3% in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, while it increased 0.3% in manufacturing.

Year-on-year, the number of workers in mining and quarrying fell 0.5%, and by 1.1% in manufacturing, while it rose 1.8% in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply.

According to the DZS data, Croatia's industrial output rose by 4% in February, thus growing for 15 months in a row on the year.

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The State Intellectual Property Office received 88 patent applications in 2021, which is  41 fewer than in 2020, while 58 patents were granted nationally, or nine fewer than in the previous year, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

Local applicants lodged 77 patent applications, down by 40, and 11 patent applications were submitted by foreigners, as against 10 in 2020.

Broken down by the fields covered by applications, 35.8% related to machine engineering, while 17.5% related to metrology and chemistry each.

One in four granted patents in Human Necessities

According to International Patent Classification (IPC), the highest share of granted patents was in Human Necessities (25.9%), and the lowest percent, 3.4% was in the Chemistry, Metallurgy category.

The category "Textiles, Paper" had no granted patent last year.

The number of valid patents in 2021, including European patents granted in Croatia, was 12,183 or 848 more than in 2020.

ZAGREB, 15 March 2022 - EU countries pay overtime work 100 percent, the Večernji List daily says on Tuesday, noting that Germans and the French work the least while workers in Croatia have the longest working week.

A regular working week in Finland is 37.5 hours and workers can work overtime to a maximum of 48 hours a week, four months in a year and they cannot work more than 13 hours in one day. It is no wonder that only 13 percent of Fins work overtime because the premium on their wage for the first two hours of overtime work in a day is 50%. For the third and every hour of overtime after that, the premium is 100% whereas the weekly premium for overtime work is 50%. Any violation of the law on working hours can carry a fine or prison sentence of up to six months.

Most of the overtime work in Croatia is in the private sector, however, data on how much is worked are not available. Unlike Finland, Croatia's legislation just notes that overtime work is paid but it does not specify how much and that is left up to the few collective agreements in the private sector.

Even though a long working week is detrimental to physical and mental health as well as negatively impacting the balance between working and private lives, a study related to overtime work in the EU, Norway and Great Britain, conducted by Eurofound, shows that some countries consider it to be normal for workers to work overtime while in other countries, overtime work is an exception.

The minimum premium for overtime work a day in European countries amounts to 10, 25, or 40 percent, the most common overtime premium is 50% while for overtime during public holidays, night shifts or rest days that premium is increased 100 percent or in some cases as much as 150%.

Workers in some countries are awarded 1.5 hours of free time for every hour of overtime work. The Eurofound study shows that in Croatia and Romania, instead of being paid for overtime work, workers are usually granted time off. The European directive on working hours from 2003 limits the maximum working week to 48 hours, including overtime work, and workers have to have at least 11 hours of rest.

In Germany the working week is 35.6 hours and workers can work a maximum of 10 hours in one day while the maximum working week, including overtime, is 48 hours. The premium for overtime work is defined by collective or individual contracts. Croatia has a 40-hour working week and workers can work a maximum of 50 hours in one week.

However, the long working week does not increase productivity and is detrimental to health and productivity. Workers in Croatia can reject overtime work unless it is required by emergency circumstances, the Večernji List says.

ZAGREB, 26 Feb 2022 - The size of the areas sown with crops during the 2021 autumn sowing season in Croatia increased 2.8% to 260,000 hectares, compared to the previous autumn season, according to the data provided by the national statistical office (DZS).

During the 2021 autumn sowing, the areas sown with cereals increased 5.8% on the year.

Broken down by type of cereals, wheat amounted to 67.8% of sown cereals last autumn. It was planted on 160,000 hectares or 10.3% more on the year.

Barley follows with a share of 23.7% , being sown on 56,000 hectares, up 1,8%.

Oilseed rape was planted on 24,000 hectares, down by 20% or by 6,000 hectares fewer than the year before.

The sowing of oilseed rape amounted to 9.2% in the total areas sown with crops during the 2021 autumn sowing season.

ZAGREB, 8 Feb 2022 - A total of 178,700 tourists visited Croatia in January 2022 and generated 586,300 overnight stays which, despite the surge in coronavirus infections, are increases of 89% and 71% respectively compared with January 2021, the Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) said in response to a query from Hina.

Compared with January of the record 2019, the number of tourist arrivals was about 17% lower and the number of overnight stays was only 1.5% lower.

Of the 178,700 tourists registered in the eVisitor system, 101,700 were Croatians and 77,000 were foreign nationals. Compared with January 2021, the number of domestic tourists increased by 34% and that of foreign tourists by as much as 313%.

The number of domestic tourists was 11% higher than in January 2019. The 265,000 overnight stays that they generated in January 2022 was 20% higher than in January 2021 and 12.3% higher than in January 2019.

Although the number of foreign tourists was considerably higher than in January 2021, it was 38% lower than in January 2019. This past January they generated 321,300 overnight stays, up by 162.7% from January 2021 but down by 10% from January 2019.

The Istria and Kvarner regions recorded the largest numbers of tourist arrivals and overnight stays in January this year. Istria registered 124,100 overnight stays, up by 62% compared with January 2021 and by 17.5% compared with January 2019. With 103,600 overnight stays logged, Kvarner saw an increase of 71% from January 2021 and of 20.4% from January 2019.

Zagreb recorded 106,400 overnight stays in January 2022, which is 133.6% more than in January 2021 and 11.5% fewer than in January 2019. As for tourist arrivals, Zagreb topped the ranking with 42,500 arrivals, which is 175% more than in January 2021 and 24.1% fewer than in January 2019.

The results for January include the New Year and winter school holidays, when people traditionally travel more. Zagreb also hosts the Snow Queen Trophy skiing competition, business and similar events which attract visitors.

ZAGREB, 29 Jan 2022 - An estimated 52,000 employed Croatians receive the minimum wage, and roughly 20,000 of them are workers in the wood-processing, leather, and textile industry.

In terms of the minimum wage for January 2022, Croatia ranked 21st, with €624, on the list of the 27 EU member-states. The other four countries at the bottom of the ranking were Hungary (€542), Romania (€515), Latvia (€500) and Bulgaria (€332), Večernji List (VL) reported on Saturday.

In 2022, the minimum wage was raised from HRK 3,400 to the net monthly amount of HRK 3,750 and the gross amount of 4,700, the daily newspaper recalled. In late October 2021, the parliament amended the Minimum Wage Act by majority vote whereby the gross minimum wage was raised to HRK 4,687  from HRK 4,250. As of this year, employers will have to contract the minimum wage with employees in the gross amount.

The daily newspaper says that in December 2021, one in ten employees got the take-home pay in the amount of HRK 3,915, or his or her gross wage was below HRK 4,772.  Slightly over 1.57 million people in Croatia were in employment in December 2021, according to the data provided by the national statistical office, which means that 3.3% of them were on the minimum wage (HRK 3,750)

In December, the average take-home wage was HRK 7,333 (€978), and in 2022, this monthly average is expected to finally exceed 1,000 euros. 

In 2022, the minimum wage will for the first time exceed 50% of the average wage, while five years ago it was equivalent to a mere 38% of the average monthly salary.

(€1= HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 29 Jan 2022 - During the 2020-2021 school year there were 3,987 postgraduate students enrolled in Croatia, and three-fifths of the enrollments were at the University of Zagreb (61.5%).

The smallest share of postgraduate students was at the University of Dubrovnik (0.4%), according to the data released by the national statistical office (DZS).

Of those 3,987 postgraduates, 13.5% were at the University of Rijeka, 9.1% at the University of Osijek, 7.9% at the University of Split, 3.7% at the University of Zadar, 2.1% at the Croatian Catholic University, and 1.3% at University North.

Women prevail among postgraduates

Broken down by gender, women prevailed, 56%, among postgraduate students, and broken down by age, the largest age cohort was between 25-29 with a 39.4% portion.

Broken down by branches of sciences, there were 21% of the enrollments in technical and social sciences each, whereas natural sciences accounted for 18.3%, and 5.7% were studying to earn a doctoral degree in interdisciplinary science programmes.

Lion's share of postgraduates Croatian nationals

As many as 95% of postgraduates had the registered place of residence in Croatia, also 96% were Croatian nationals, and 96.8% of those post-graduates already obtained a master's degree in Croatia,

Most enrollments were employees in the educational sector, 41%, and 3.3% of the postgraduates enrolled in the 2020-2021 academic year were jobless.

Roughly 46% of the students paid themselves postgraduate education fees, in 38.1% of the cases, the costs were covered by employers, and 13.2% of postgraduate studying was financed by the state budget.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 27 Aug 2021 - The robust growth in the second quarter of 2021 is within expectations based on the relevant indicators, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) said on Friday in its comment on the preliminary data showing the Q2 16.1% economic growth year-on-year.

The HGK's analysis shows that all the big sectors had high growth rates in the second quarter compared to 2020 Q2.

For instance, industrial output increased 13.9%, retail trade jumped 20.5%, and the volume of construction work increased 16% in the second quarter this year, the HGK recalls. Furthermore, tourist arrivals skyrocketed 131.7% compared to the second quarter of 2020, and their overnight stays increased 129.2%.

The HGK says that all the basic activities contributed to the growth on the year.

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ZAGREB, 3 Aug (Hina) - Total household loans in Croatia reached HRK 138.9 billion at the end of June 2021, increasing by HRK 4.2 billion from June 2020, according to the data provided by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

The annual nominal household loan growth rate was 3.2%, picking up from 2.7% in May 2021, Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) said in its analysis of the central bank's data.

The share of kuna-denominated loans in total loans was 55%, the same as the month before.

Household credit claims increased by 1.9% or HRK 2.7 billion since the start of the year.

The annual household loan growth rate increased from 3.5% to 4%, with the growth of housing loans picking up from 9.7% to 10.1%. 

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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