"Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said on Tuesday that a period of record low interest rates would inevitably come to an end, but it was difficult to speculate when and at what pace that could happen," Croatian state agency Hina informed the public.

“Commenting on this topic on the margins of the Jutarnji List newspaper’s conference on European Green Deal, Maric told the press that he had mentioned on many occasions that a period of low interest rates would have to come to an end, however, it was difficult to assess a pace of those changes,” Hina added.

“There has been talk of a rise in interest rates for three years, nevertheless, this has not yet happened,” Maric said adding that “the general public should be provided with the full information in a transparent manner.”

“Low reference interest rates on the international markets were also a result of money printing in the wake of the global economic crisis a decade ago, according to his explanation,” Hina said.

In Croatia, interes rates have fallen also due to a reduction in the risk premium, and while in 2015, Croatia disbursed 12 billion kuna to cover interest rates, in 2020, less than 7.5 billion was paid for that purpose.

“Commenting on the effects of the euro changeover to the price of money and to interest on loans, the minister said that the euro adoption had a direct favourable impact on the reduction of risk premium for individual countries, and that the Fitch credit rating agency assessed that the introduction of the euro for Croatia would lead to the country’s credit rating improvement by two notches, and consequently it helps reduce the premium risk and interest,” Hina added.