Growing optimism should be looked against the backdrop of Croatian government's efforts on the economic front and the start of Croatia's EU membership talks, according to the results of the traditional annual opinion poll which the Croatian business journal and the Croatian Chamber of the Economy (HGK) carry out.
This year's survey, whose results were presented during an annual assembly of the HGK in Zagreb on Wednesday, was conducted among 108 companies ranked at the list of the top 400 Croatian companies which the journal published earlier this year.
More than four fifths of the companies (82.2 percent) expect higher income earnings next year, with 65.4 percent of companies looking forward to higher profits. In addition, 46.4 percent of the companies in question expect a rise in their export and 45.9 percent are planning to create more jobs.
Managers of those companies evaluated the Ivo Sanader cabinet's economic policy with the average grade of 3.2 points on the scale from 1 (failing grade) to 5 as excellent, with over a half of respondents (53 percent) evaluating the policy as good (3) and 35.5 percent as very good (4). A total of 11.2 percent of respondents gave the government's economic policy a barely passing grade (2) or a failing grade (1).