Presenting the draft budget for 2022 in the national parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced a shift from crisis management to efforts to boost competitiveness and create new jobs.

“Ahead of us is the task to increase the Croatian economy’s competitiveness by shifting our activities from crisis management, which has been going on for nearly two years now, to competitiveness and job creation,” Plenkovic told the Sabor.

The 2022 budget proposal is based on the positive and encouraging trends in the recovery of the Croatian economy, growth projections of at least 9% in 2021, the successful tourist season and the growth in exports, the PM said.

Considering the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 developments, the state budget has been adjusted to the circumstances faced by Croatia and the whole world for more than 18 months since the start of the biggest ever health crisis, he said.

The budget also reflects the unavoidable role of the state in preventing the collapse of society and the economy and in creating prerequisites for a speedier economic recovery, said Plenkovic.

He recalled that the national  economy had rebounded at a rate of 16.5% in the second quarter of 2021 and 15.8% in the third quarter, adding that Croatia has the strength to achieve higher real growth than that registered in the pre-pandemic 2019.

“According to our projections, real GDP is set to rise 9%, and we will return to the levels of to the pre-crisis 2019 already this year. We expect this positive trend of strong GDP growth to continue in the next three years, at a rate of 4.4% in 2022, 3.7% in 2023 and 3.1% in 2024, the prime minister said.

Finance Minister Zdravko Marić informed lawmakers that revenues in the 2022 budget were projected at HRK 164.5 billion and expenditures at HRK 173.8 billion. As a result, the general government deficit is forecast at HRK 12 billion, which is 2.6% of GDP.

Parliament is expected to pass the 2022 budget on 8 December.

(€1 = HRK 7.523492)