The report, released on Tuesday, put Croatia in 70th position on a list of 159 countries in terms of perception of corruption. Last year Croatia ranked 67th among 146 countries.
"Members of the public are not satisfied with the situation and the speed at which the anti-corruption measures produce results, but we think that highlighting their dissatisfaction as a measure of the actual state of affairs and a criterion for comparison with other countries is detrimental to Croatia's reputation and economy as well as to the overall atmosphere in the Croatian business community," HUP president Emil Tedeschi said in a statement.
Tedeschi views "an interpretation of the perception of corruption as a relevant index for comparison of the actual level of corruption in the countries" as inappropriate.
"It is good that Croatian citizens are very sensitive to corruption, because their great expectations create pressure for this social and economic problem to be dealt with in a radical fashion. However, their perception of an increasing level of corruption may largely be the result of growing interest with which the media and the public have been following this phenomenon over the past few years and of individual corruption cases that have received prominent media coverage," the statement said.
The HUP said that combating corruption was one of its priorities.