Business

May 1, 2022 - Up to 35,000 seasonal workers in Croatia are missing this season, with waiters being the most sought-after workers in Croatia. The 2022 tourist season should be excellent and at the level of 2019 or even better, at least according to the announcements. After two pandemic years, lockdowns have been lifted across Europe, and tourists are coming back to Croatia. But will there be enough seasonal workers to fill all the necessary jobs? Index.hr reports: According to the eVisitor system, which includes tourist traffic generated in commercial and non-commercial facilities and nautical charter (eCrew), in Croatia during…

ZAGREB, 30 April 2022 - A total of 9,158 businesses with 102,085 employees operated in the retail trade sector in Croatia in 2020, and the sector's consolidated result was a profit in the amount of HRK 2.2 billion, show data from the Financial Agency. The number of retail businesses in 2020 was 3.1% up from the previous year. In 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, those businesses earned revenues in the amount of HRK 101.5 billion, while their expenditure totalled HRK 98.8 billion. A total of 5,450 businesses operated at a profit, a drop of 13% from the previous year…

April the 30th, 2022 - Wildly successful Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac, the founder of Rimac Automobili, is looking to employ as many as 250 new employees, some of whom will go on to work in the United Kingdom and in the German capital of Berlin. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, nobody who follows the media space in Croatia will find the name Mate Rimac strange. This incredibly talented and doggedly determined Livno-born businessman not only placed the country on the automotive map after starting out from his garage, but has since become the co-owner of Bugatti Rimac, with many other ventures…

April the 30th, 2022 - The Easter weekend of 2022 brought with it some excellent results for the pre-season and with it high hopes for the height of this year's summer tourist season. The Croatian Arena Hospitality Group has done very well indeed. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, for the Croatian Arena Hospitality Group, the recent Easter weekend met all of their expectations and about 15,000 overnight stays were realised. The largest share of that number was made up of guests from Germany, Austria and neighbouring Slovenia, but there was also a pronounced increase in domestic guests. Guests come mostly in…

ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - Croatia's industrial production fell in March 2022 for the first time in 15 months, indicating a slowing of the economic recovery. Industrial production decreased by 2.6% from February 2022 and by 1.9% from March 2021, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) said on Friday. Annual decreases were observed in four of five sectors, with production of capital goods decreasing the most, by 6.7%. Production of energy fell by 4.0%, of non-durable consumer goods by 3.3% and of durable consumer goods by 2.3%, while production of intermediate goods increased by 2.3%. In the first quarter of…

ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - Total lending by monetary institutions to domestic sectors, except the central government, increased by HRK 4 billion in March, with the annual growth rate accelerating from 4% to 5%, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) said on Friday. This was the result of the increase in loans. Corporate loans increased by HRK 3.7 billion or 6.7% and household loans by HRK 900 million, while loans to other domestic sectors decreased by HRK 400 million. In the structure of household loans, housing loans and general-purpose cash loans continued to increase, both by HRK 300 million. The annual growth rates of…

ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - The Valamar Riviera hotel company generated HRK 59.5 million in operating revenues in Q1 2022, up 97% year-on-year, with an increase of 147,000 in overnight stays, or 192%, the company said in a financial statement on Friday, announcing a return to the occupancy rate from 2019 this year. Total revenues reached HRK 74.8 million, up 119% on the year. "In Q1 2022, Valamar Riviera achieved results comparable to 2019, continuing the positive trend of tourism recovering to the pre-pandemic level," Croatia's largest tourist company said. In that period, total expenditures reached nearly HRK 314 million,…

ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) generated a net profit of HRK 30 million in the first quarter of 2022, which is about HRK 10.6 million or 25% less than in the corresponding period of 2021, the state-owned bank said in a financial statement on Friday. The main driver of the net profit achieved was operating profit, which decreased by 59.5%, from HRK 74 million to HRK 30 million. Operating revenue decreased by about HRK 34 million to HRK 157 million, while operating expenditure jumped by HRK 10 million to HRK 126 million. Net interest revenue fell by 7.1% from…

ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - The Podravka Group generated a net profit of HRK 88.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, a decrease of 15.6% over the same period in 2021, the Koprivnica-based food company said in a financial statement on Friday, noting that the direct cause of the decreased profit was the Ukraine crisis. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was 7.7% lower while net profit was 15.6% lower than in 2021, which is a direct result of the Ukraine crisis, Podravka said in a press release. Sales revenue amounted to HRK 1.18 billion, or 8.6% more compared…

ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - In 2021 Croatia was among EU countries with the lowest level of employment, below the European average, a report by the Eurostat statistical office indicates. In 2021, the share of employed people in the EU population was 73.1%, corresponding to 189.7 million people, up 1.4 percentage points from 2020, the first pandemic year, Eurostat said. This was a higher rate than for the pre-pandemic year 2019, when 72.7% of the population was employed. The employment rate in the eurozone in 2021 was 72.5%, the same as in 2019. In 2020 it was 71.2%. Croatia with…