Vujčić: Croatian economy can create 40,000 new jobs annually

The Croatian economy is capable of generating 40,000 new jobs annually, said the governor of the Croatian National Bank Boris Vujčić during the Future of Investment conference organized by Bloomberg Adria.

He reiterated several times that the Croatian economy has been able to generate an average of 40,000 new jobs annually over the past four years.

He expects employment to grow next year and assesses that Croatia has become a significant immigration country.

Tourism and IT have generated the largest number of jobs, with the IT sector being the fastest-growing sector individually, he stated.

He emphasized that following the EU Council’s decision on Croatia’s entry into the Eurozone, borrowing costs were immediately reduced, and this has remained the case to this day.

The cost of borrowing for Croatia has entered the range for European countries with an ‘A’ rating, Vujčić said.

Wages have grown faster than inflation

He stated that the purchasing power of Croatian citizens has recovered after a decline in 2022.

He noted that inflation rose sharply that year – it began to rise in mid-2022, peaking in November, and then started to decline in 2023.

During that period, prices increased cumulatively by 25 percent compared to the pre-pandemic period, but nominal wages grew faster.

– This has led to average real net wages today being 18 percent higher than they were in 2019 – Vujčić said, adding that low wages have increased faster than other wages, a result of the rise in the minimum wage.

– Croatia is one of the fastest-growing economies after the pandemic. In the last four years, Croatia has been one of the two or three fastest-growing economies in the EU and is growing above the pre-pandemic trend – he said.

He emphasized that the unemployment rate is at historically low levels and predicts it will continue to decrease towards 4.5 percent by 2026 (currently at 4.9 percent).

He believes that Croatia would not have received an ‘A’ credit rating if it had not adopted the euro.

He announced that GDP will grow by 3.7 percent this year and 3.3 percent next year, which will keep us among the fastest-growing economies, he said.

The State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Davor Zoričić stated that his ministry has announced, since 2023 when the first state bond intended for citizens was issued, that citizens can expect regular issuance of securities intended for them.

In this way, they can easily reinvest money that matures from the securities they have already invested in, he said.

– Citizens can expect the issuance of one-year treasury bills in June and November, and in June, September, and December, the issuance of quarterly treasury bills – Zoričić said.

The Director of the World Bank for Croatia and Slovenia Jehan Arulpragasam emphasized that the largest project the World Bank has had in Croatia is the ‘Port of Rijeka’ project, but that there have been many important projects in the last 30 years.

He also spoke about the need for complete digitalization of the public system, the green transition, which will be supported by World Bank experts, the continuation of a series of reforms, etc.