Corona Measures: Economic Assistance Extended Until the End of the Year

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on Thursday that the Croatian Employment Service will make decisions on Monday regarding the continuation of economic assistance measures due to the corona crisis, which include continued support for job preservation and liquidity assurance as well as Covid loans.

Stating that the government has enabled the retention of jobs, preservation of liquidity, and prevention of a significant increase in the number of unemployed with a total of 6.3 billion kuna paid out, he announced the continuation of the co-financing measure for reduced working hours of a maximum of two thousand kuna per worker along with the corresponding contributions, as well as the extension of measures for micro-entrepreneurs until December 31, also amounting to 2,000 kuna per worker, if the entrepreneur experienced a drop in revenue of more than 50 percent. This measure, he said, applies to all sectors of the economy and includes the waiver of corresponding contributions.

For activities that are particularly endangered, support of 4,000 kuna per worker will continue until December 31 of this year, Plenković said. He mentioned that this particularly applies to passenger transport, hospitality, tour operators, and entrepreneurs related to recreation, cultural, business, and sports events, if they experienced a drop in revenue of more than 60 percent. This support also includes the waiver of contributions on salaries.

In addition to endangered activities, the measure of 4,000 kuna will also be available to entrepreneurs and activities that will be closed by decisions of local or national civil protection headquarters, Plenković said.

All these measures, according to him, will cost about 800 million kuna by the end of the year and will be financed from the state budget, but part of the funds will be compensated from European funds, both from the existing financial perspective and pro futuro from SURE program loans, and part from future programs, such as the Recovery and Resilience Fund. He also announced the continuation of issuing "Covid" loans through HAMAG-BICRO and the HBOR program.

"Croatia has taken national measures in a timely manner… we reacted on time and therefore did not feel a significant increase in unemployment and enabled the bridging of the crisis for numerous economic entities," Plenković said. He assessed that new activities are in that direction, announcing a thorough discussion with trade unions and employers.

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