Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that on 1 January the government would launch a comprehensive set of measures to increase wages, including tax changes and a reduction in contributions, the main goal being to increase the lowest wages, but he noted that wages would go up for all workers.

“The government is trying to find a model to increase net wages for all workers, notably those with the lowest wages. That is why it will embark on further cuts, of both taxes and contributions,” Plenković said in Okučani, where he attended the 28th anniversary of Operation Flash.

“I believe the parliament will support us and that with a period of adjustment, from October to December, we have enough time to ensure that everyone’s net wages go up as of 1 January,” he said.

Asked if this was a pre-election move, Plenković said: “No, it’s not. This is result of systematic and continual work.”

The PM said that “a few strategic points remain” to be settled for the government to be able to say, around 2030, that even infrastructure connectivity (roads, railways, Internet) had been secured across the country.

Speaking of the economic and social context in the country on International Workers’ Day, he said, “Last year we had a growth of 6.3%, in 2021 it was 13.4%, this year we have increased growth projections to 2.2%. More than 1.6 million people are employed, the unemployment rate is below 7%, all three leading rating agencies have maintained our investment credit rating and we are the only country for which all three rating agencies have increased credit rating since the start of the Russian aggression on Ukraine, and two of them have increased it by two notches,” he said.

Plenković noted that €25 billion in grants had been made available to Croatia for this decade through the EU’s seven-year budget and its NextGenerationEU facility.

“We have weathered the crisis and our position is very decent,” he said.