The revenues of the IT industry in Croatia in 2021 "exceeded 32 billion kuna" (€4.3 billion) which was 15 percent up from 2020 and 57 percent up from "more than five years ago," even though wages lag behind Europe which is why the industry is increasingly short of workers, the state news platform Hina said on Tuesday, citing experts from the national chamber of commerce HGK.

The HGK organised the conference on the IT sector, at which the government was urged to provide more support to this industry.

“Particularly in a period of inflation, but otherwise as well, it is important to invest in innovations, new technologies and production with added value, which means also in human capacities, because important changes and progress in society cannot be achieved by a machine, but by a human being,” HGK official, Tomislav Rados, said at the conference.

HGK’s analysis showed that the IT sector in Croatia is growing faster than the rest of the economy, and it grew even during the pandemic. In addition to the increase in revenues in 2021, it also achieved a 31.4 percent increase in EBITDA compared to 2020 and as much as 109 percent compared to five years ago in 2017, to more than 4.5 billion kuna.

Exports amounted to almost 12 billion kuna, so the IT sector has achieved 37 percent of its total revenue on foreign markets, which is an increase of 26.3 percent compared to 2020 and double from 2017. The largest part of this export comes from “small IT companies” whose exports were 3.6 billion kuna.

In the last five years, the number of IT companies has also steadily risen in Croatia, at an average annual rate of 11 percent, so that at the end of 2021 there  were more than 6,500 of these companies, which is up 12 percent from 2020.

(€1 = 7.55 kuna)