During 2020, €2.8 billion (21.1 billion kuna) was paid out in grants, 40% more than in 2019, and the financial support to the enterprise sector during the pandemic amounted to €219 million (1.64 billion kuna), according to a report on the state aid adopted by the government on Wednesday.

Finance Ministry State-Secretary, Zdravko Zrinusic, informed a cabinet meeting that “trends in state aid in 2020 were marked by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which also partially influenced the structure of grants awarded.”

Zrinusic said that state aid continued to increase and in 2020 grants jumped by 40% on the year.

Croatia’s state aid as a percentage of GDP amounted to 5.68%. Support per each employed person in 2020 amounted to 13,666 kuna (€1,822), which is an increase of 3,978 kuna or 41.1% year-on-year.

That amount was 5,275 kuna per capita which is 1,600 kuna or 43.5% more y-o-y.

The share of support in state expenditure in 2020 amounted to 20.72%, said Zrinusic.

The agriculture and fisheries sector was granted 7.7 billion kuna in state aid last year, which is an increase of 15% compared with 2019, while support to the industry and services sector amounted to 13.4 billion kuna or an increase of 60%.

Support to the economic sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was granted for the first time ever and amounted to 1.64 billion kuna or 7.8% of all the state aid, while its share in GDP was 0.44%.

Instruments issued last year for support were in the form of subsidies or direct subsidies of interest and amounted to HRK 14.95 billion, followed by capital investments (HRK 2.2 billion), tax exemptions and breaks (1.66 billion kuna), guarantees (1.4 billion kuna), and favourable loans (888 million kuna), the annual report notes.

Zrinusic said that no changes are expected in the structure of state aid in 2021, including the consequences caused by the pandemic and earthquakes that struck Croatia last year.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)