Croatia's economy will grow in 2021 by 5.5 percent and in 2022 its growth is expected to pick up to 6.2 percent, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

In 2020 Croatia’s economy contracted by 8%, the World Bank says in its latest forecast for the global economy, revising down its forecast from January by 0.6 percentage points. The World Bank forecasts that Croatia’s GDP will grow by 5.5% this year, an increase of 0.1 percentage points in relation to the January forecast.

The growth forecast for 2022 has been revised up by two percentage points, to 6.2%, meaning that the country’s economy could reach the pre-pandemic level even before the end of 2022.

In 2023 growth is estimated to slow down to 5.7%.

In Central Europe, economic activity should increase by 4.6% both in 2021 and in 2022, supported by the recovery of commerce. Extraordinary support schemes should stay in force until the end of the year and significant support from the EU to member-states is expected to make up for weaker investments, the World Bank notes.