The prestigious British weekly Economist coined the term in 1977 that will accurately summarize the state of the Croatian economy exactly 40 years later. The excessive dependence of the Dutch economy on the exploitation of natural resources at the expense of production was simply called ‘Dutch disease’. Unlike the original ailment that arises from reliance on gas exploitation (found in the late 1950s near Groningen) and the parallel decline of the manufacturing sector, ‘Croatian disease’ arises from dependence on tourism to the detriment of more or less all other sectors of the economy. This is, evidently, a very unpleasant paradox, considering that the rapid growth of one source of income, especially one as inexhaustible as natural beauty and attractive ruins, is certainly not a bad thing in itself.
The problem arises when all other parts of the economy, especially industry, begin to decline simultaneously (one of the key factors is the influx of foreign currency, which increases demand for domestic goods, making it strong and thus exports become uncompetitive), and the entire economy is gripped by a general numbness of all organs, a condition that doctors call ‘rentier mentality’. In a patient who is not otherwise inclined to an active lifestyle, this condition can be fatal, although there is also a school of thought that developing a comparative advantage is not a bad thing at all.
