The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised upward the projection of Croatia's real Gross Domestic Product for this and next year, saying that Croatia's GDP growth in 2019 is likely to be twice as strong as the growth of a group of countries which the Washington-based fund calls "Emerging and Developing Europe".

Croatia’s economic growth is projected to revive to 3% in 2019, according to the IMF Winter Economic Outlook (WEO), which is 0.4 percentage points higher than the Fund’s estimate released in April.

In 2020, Croatia’s economy is expected to grow by 2.7%, which is 0.2 percentage points more than in the previous projection.

The IMF also estimates that Croatia’s economy grew by 2.6% in 2018, which is 0.1 percentage point lower than in its previous forecast.

Croatia’s economic growth of 3% in 2019 is twice as high as the projection for “Emerging and Developing Europe” which, apart from Croatia, includes Russia, Turkey, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus, Bulgaria and Serbia.

The aggregate economic growth of that group is estimated by the IMF at 1.8% in 2019, and in 2020 the group’s growth rate is set at 2.5%.

The main reason for the slower economic growth in “Emerging and Developing Europe” is Turkey’s economic stagnation this year, which neutralises Hungary’s 4.6% growth projection and Poland and Romania’s growth projection of 4%.

The IMF also projects Croatia’s unemployment rate of 9.0% this year to further fall to 8% in 2020, after it stood at 9.9% in 2018.

Croatia’s consumer prices index is put at 1% in 2019 and 1.2% in 2020.

Croatia’s current account balance surplus, expressed as a percentage of GDP, stands at +1.7% in 2019 and +1% in 2020, after it stood at +2.5% in 2018.