HUP: Shortage of workers limiting further GDP growth

A growth rate of 2.9 percent is good news, said HUP general director Davor Majetic, but warned that the shortage of workers is the main cause of limited further growth.

GDP growth could be even more significant if employers were offered ways to retain existing workers, as well as to increase employment and salaries, he said.

This year's Q2 was the 16th quarter in a row that GDP increased. In Q1 2018, GDP went up by 2.5 percent year-on-year, state statistics bureau reported on Wednesday.

"When the consumption component in the GDP growth is considered, it indicates that the greatest impact on the accelerated growth rate was made by exports of commodities and services, which all had a completely opposite effect in the first quarter. Other categories of demand have also recorded a mild slowing down in growth, including personal consumption, which has the greatest share in the structure of total demand," HGK told state news agency Hina.

The growth is not far from what the European Commission had predicted, which, at 2.6 percent, was a bit higher than predictions for the EU as a whole (2.1 percent), but is also the slowest among the EU10 countries, HGK said.

The EU10 refers to the ten countries that joined the bloc in May 2004: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

“As a consequence of this growth, Croatia should continue to catch up to the average level of development in the EU, but, unfortunately, it will continue to lag behind the average level of development among the EU10 countries,” HGK warned.

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