Today, a round table on the topic ‘New Economic and Fiscal Policy for Croatia’ was held at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, organized by the Zagreb Initiative and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The chief economist of Hypo Bank, Hrvoje Stojić, compared Croatia to ‘an overturned turtle that cannot be turned back’.
Stojić spoke about deflation that could delay larger purchases and investments by companies that have increasingly lower expectations from the market, and in his opinion, it will also reflect on the real estate market. Regarding the state budget, he stated that he is not pleased with symbolic savings and excessive reliance on the revenue side.
Member of the Committee for Economy and Energy of the German Bundestag, Klaus-Peter Willsch, stated that one of the fundamental problems is that it was thought in Croatia that entering the European Union would solve everything by itself.
“This was an illusion; Croatia will not solve its problems without its own efforts. I encourage Croatian politicians to recognize the problems and enable reforms. Both I personally and Germany as your good friend are ready to help you, but you must do the bulk of the work yourself,” said Klaus-Peter Willsch.
Economist Josip Budimir (HSLS) believes that Croatia has two major problems. “The problem is how much the state spends and what it spends on. The fact is that we spend more than we have, and even with a large fiscal burden, among the highest in Europe, we cannot meet the state’s needs,” said Budimir.
Budimir sees an almost unsolvable problem in “strong anti-reform forces,” and warns that young people, who should be filling the budget, are leaving the country in large numbers. He proposes a reform of the pension system, which he considers the main generator of the deficit, as well as the healthcare system.
