The World Bank affirmed its forecast for Croatia's economic growth in 2018 at 2.6 percent, while cutting its projection for next year by 0.1 percentage points to 2.7 percent, their report released on Wednesday said.

Croatia is expected to end 2020 with a GDP growth of 2.8 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from earlier forecasts, the World Bank said in its June 2018 Global Economic Prospects report.

The country’s economy grew by 2.8 percent last year after ending a six-year-long recession which lasted from 2009 to 2015.

According to the World Bank, economies in Central Europe, which include Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, are expected to expand by 4.2 percent this year, and by 3.7 percent in 2019.

For commodity importers, the significant pickup in activity in 2017 was driven by increased demand from the euro zone and the disbursements of EU structural funds for projects in Central Europe, although these factors have started to wane gradually.

Commodity importers are Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and Serbia, the report said.

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