Everyone Won – HDZ, SDP and Most

The election campaign was short, but election night was long. Although the HDZ’s Patriotic Coalition is the relative winner of the elections, Most is considered by many to be the real winner.

Without a coalition, it will not be possible to form a new government, so the SDP (the Croatia is Growing coalition) hopes that its high result in the parliamentary elections opens doors for significant opportunities not only in combination with Most.

It seems that everyone has won – HDZ, MOST, and SDP. Or perhaps no one. However, it is evident that voters have chosen change, and Most has benefited from the votes of those dissatisfied with HDZ and SDP. Most is a coalition of independent lists, and it is not clear how it will operate. There are already talks about breaking up Most, given that it consists of a group of different individuals.

It would be best to have a government soon to avoid a repeat of the elections. In this regard, a large coalition of HDZ and SDP is very unlikely. The difference between these two parties could also be seen in their headquarters. In HDZ’s headquarters, they celebrated just like during the presidential elections, while in SDP’s they returned to behavior we are accustomed to, unlike the patriotic outbursts during the campaign. They could have met in any country at some insignificant gathering. Let us hope that in the end, citizens will not be the biggest losers of the elections.  

The European Commission expects that the Croatian economy will grow by 1.1 percent this year, although it had predicted a growth of 0.3 percent in May. According to the Commission, GDP should rise to 1.4 percent, and in 2017 to 1.7 percent. The budget deficit is expected to fall this year to 4.9 percent from last year’s 5.6, next year to 4.7, and the year after to 4.1 percent. However, to reduce public debt, the Commission calls for seriousness and structural changes, given that debt will increase to 89.2 percent of GDP this year, 91.1 next year, and 92.9 percent in 2017. The president of the Croatian Employers’ Association, Gordana Deranja, is not satisfied with these indicators, as she considers this economic growth to be long-term stagnant. For her, with such expectations, there is no employment or growth in competitiveness, and the target should be towards three percent. HUP hopes that the future government will have the strength for changes, but in the programs of the two largest coalitions, they did not find how these difficulties would be resolved. Analysts were not surprised by everything, as they had also announced such increases. Zdeslav Šantić, chief economist of Societe Generale Splitska banka, explains that we have joined EU member states in economic recovery, but unlike them, we have not implemented fiscal consolidation and adjustment.

On Deloitte’s list of the 50 fastest-growing Central European technology companies, Croatian companies hold a remarkable eight places, double the number from last year. The software company Serengeti ranked the highest, at ninth place, followed by Nanobit at 11th and Integracija od-do at 18th place. The list also includes Sedmi odjel, Infinum, InfoCumulus, Acceleratio, and Degordian. Axilis and Osmi BiT are part of Deloitte’s Rising Stars list with companies that have been operating for three years. Only Poland with 12 and Slovakia with 10 companies are ahead of Croatia in the number of companies among the top 50.

At the third international conference Controlling – Economic Partner of Management organized by Kontroling Kognoska and Lider, it was emphasized that the goal of the conference is to bring controlling closer to the economy and that controllers are important partners to management. The keynote speaker, Peter Horwath, founder and vice president of the Supervisory Board of Horwath AG, pointed out that today controlling depends on interpreting numerous data and that controllers are true scientists.