Croatian think tank projects 6.2% GDP growth in 2022

According to a local think tank, the Institute of Economics Zagreb (EIZ), Croatia’s December economic performance points to real economic growth of 6.2% for the entire year 2022. According to EIZ’s press release, Q4 of 2022 should have the lowest annual GDP growth rate in 2022 at 3.6%.

According to EIZ, GDP decreased by 0.4% from Q3 of 2022 to the fourth. A decline in seasonally adjusted quarterly GDP values in Q4 shows that the Croatian economy had likely entered a technical recession, it added, especially because GDP in Q3 of 2022 also registered a negative quarterly change rate.

The EIZ’s projections are based on the EIZ Coincident Economic Index (CEIZ) for December, which showed a loss of 3.37 index points over the previous year and 0.36 index points over the previous month. There were fewer index components in December 2022, when examined separately: state budget income from VAT revenues, volume of industrial production, and real retail trade. However, the number of tourist arrivals recorded a greater value.

Industrial production and retail trade production decreased in December compared to November. The other two components increased.

The statistics office will provide its projections for GDP growth in Q4 on February 28. Following a decline of 8.6% in 2020, Croatia’s economic production increased by a corrected real 13.1% in 2021.

The average net wage in Serbia will increase by 1.7% in real terms in 2022

The statistical office reported on Friday that Serbia’s average monthly net wage climbed by a real 1.7% in 2022 after increasing by 5.4% the year before. According to a statement from the statistical office, the average net wage will amount to 74,933 dinars ($676/638 euro) in nominal terms in 2022.

Serbia’s average net pay fell by 1.9% in December to 84,227 dinars. This is a nominal decrease of 1.6% from November. In real terms, ‌average net pay increased 7.0% in December compared to November, an increase of 2.9%.