Europe and Central Asia Knowledge Brief
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This is a regular series of notes highlighting recent analyses, good practices, and lessons learned from the development work program of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region.
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Publication
Croatia : A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-02)Croatia`s current economic challenges include sluggish growth, excessive public spending, high unemployment, and a deteriorating external environment. Croatian economy was making a fragile recovery and dealing with slow export growth, low investment, and persistent unemployment. At the end of 2011, Croatia gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (in purchasing power terms) declined to 61 percent average, a loss of 2 percentage points since 2008.The country incomplete structural reform agenda needs attention and action to promote greater competitiveness and a shift to productivity-based, private sector-led growth. It also faces the strategic challenge of maximizing the benefits of European Union (EU) membership, especially in terms of access to markets and the use of EU structural funds, requiring structural changes in the social sectors, education system, and business environment. Accelerating economic recovery requires Croatia to complete its currently unfinished structural reform agenda and shift to productivity-based, private sector-led growth. The government could also do more to: (i) reform product market regulation; (ii) remove administrative barriers to investments; (iii) reduce the logistics costs in trade; (iv) make the bankruptcy process more efficient; and (v) modernize contract enforcement and property rights. -
Publication
Croatia’s Science and Technology Project Unleashes Innovation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06)Croatia's economic and social development achievements in the last decade have been impressive; the country closed its income gap with the European Union and now has some of the best social development indicators in the region. However, growing current account deficits, in the context of increasing domestic wages, small productivity gains and scarce innovation, suggest that this pattern may not be sustainable. With the economic crisis hitting the region hard, accelerating productivity and reaping the benefits of innovation for the country's development have become even more urgent.