This year, the Croatian economy is expected to grow at the same rate as last year, at 2.8 percent, after which it will slow down, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its spring World Economic Outlook on Tuesday.

The IMF confirmed its projection from a closing statement released last October, after a regular IMF mission visit to Croatia.

However, it revised its growth projection for 2017, reducing it from 3.1 percent to 2.8 percent.

In 2019, the growth of the Croatian economy is expected to decelerate to 2.6 percent.

Economic activity in the Emerging and Developing Europe region, which includes Croatia, is projected to grow at a rate of 4.3 percent in 2018, before slowing down to 3.7% percent in 2019.

The IMF expects global growth to reach 3.9 percent this year, compared with 3.8 percent last year. Advanced economies are projected to grow at 2.5 percent in 2018 and decelerate to 2.0 percent in 2019.

“Growth this broad-based and strong has not been seen since the world’s initial sharp 2010 bounce back from the financial crisis of 2008-09. The synchronized expansion will help to dispel some remaining legacies of the crisis by speeding the exit from unconventional monetary policies in advanced economies, encouraging investment, and healing labour market scars,” the report said.