Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday that the latest European Commission economic forecasts were good for Croatia, which is among the four countries expected to experience the highest growth.

In its Spring 2021 Economic Forecast on Wednesday, the European Commission mildly reduced its forecast for the Croatian economy for this year to 5 percent, but markedly increased the forecast for 2022 to 6.1 percent, when Croatia’s GDP should surpass the pre-pandemic level and be among the fastest growing in the EU.

“I think that the spring forecast is really favourable for Croatia. We are among the four countries expected to have the highest growth rates and we are above the EU average, which is around 4.2-4.4 percent. I believe the forecasts are practically in line with what the government has said,” Plenkovic said answering reporters’ questions in the Istrian town of Vodnjan, where he visited the Infobip company.

He noted that the EC was very optimistic about growth in 2022, and as for the forecast for 2021, he said: “We are talking about nuances, the forecast for this year has been lowered from 5.3 percent to 5 percent, but it remains to be seen what the results of the tourist season will be and how much they will contribute to GDP growth. I think that we can be very satisfied and it is good that the EC, too, believes that Croatia, in addition to having retained jobs in the crisis, and now that the epidemic has started to wane and vaccination has picked up, is creating conditions for normal communication, economic activity and tourism growth.”

“If we continue in that direction, with the important injection of €6.3 billion euros from the Next Generation EU instrument, namely the National Recovery and Resilience Plan that is being finalised in consultation with the EC, those investments should strongly contribute to Croatia’s economy and economic growth in the years ahead,” he said, adding that Croatia would recover faster than other countries “because we need that very much.”