Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday that the minimum legally mandated net salary in Croatia would be raised next year to 4,220 kuna (€561), about a 12-percent increase from the current 3,750 kuna (€499).

He also announced that the government’s latest GDP projections forecast a 5.7 percent GDP growth in 2022, nearly double from their previous estimate from earlier in the year, which put the expected GDP growth at 3.0 percent.

Recently the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Monterary Fund (IMF) had also upped their estimates for Croatia’s 2022 GDP growth, which they now put at 6.5 percent and 5.9 percent respectively.

Presenting a report on the state of the nation in Parliament, Plenkovic called 2022 “the year of delivery.” He supported this by reminding MPs that in July the EU-funded Chinese-built Peljesac Bridge infrastructure project was finally opened, that Croatia is about to replace its currency the kuna with the euro in January, and that the country is also expected to join the EU’s passport-free travel Schengen Area next year.

“Croatia also has a historically high credit rating by all three leading global credit-rating agencies,” Plenkovic said, adding that since 2016, the year when he became prime minister, “the level of development of the country, per capita, has increased from 61 to 70 percent of the EU average.”

He went on to list his government’s achievements, including their two “anti-inflation packages” which he described as “strong, comprehensive, and fair measures,” worth more than 26 billion kuna (€3.4 billion), which included tax cuts and subsidies.

Plenkovic also did not forget to remind MPs that last year Croatia had a 10.2 percent GDP growth, the third-highest in the EU, and he also listed increased exports and the recovering tourist industry as optimistic signs of post-Covid recovery.

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)