ZAGREB, April 8 (Hina) - Five international fairs, jointly called "Building and Equipping", opened at the Zagreb Fair on Tuesday pooling 1,580 exhibitors from 34 countries.
ZAGREB, April 8 (Hina) - Five international fairs, jointly called
"Building and Equipping", opened at the Zagreb Fair on Tuesday
pooling 1,580 exhibitors from 34 countries. #L#
Opening the event, Economy Minister Ljubo Jurcic said that the
newly established Agency for the Promotion of Exports and
Investments would provide more active support to Croatian
businessmen in penetrating foreign markets.
Speaking about the main guidelines of the government's economic
policy, the minister said that the growth of the Gross Domestic
Product in the past three years (2.9 percent in 2000, 3.8 percent in
2001 and 5.2 percent in 2002) was predominantly determined by an
increase in domestic consumption, i.e. capital and consumer
spending. He said that along with a steady increase in GDP the
country also saw a constant reduction of budgetary expenditure.
Since 1999, Croatia has been marking a permanent increase of
exports, which rose from US$4.3 billion to $4.9 billion in 2002,
Jurcic said.
Even though imports have been rising even faster, in this year's
first two months trends have taken a positive direction - exports
increased by 22.9 percent expressed in kuna and by as much as 49.1
percent expressed in US dollars. The increase of imports has slowed
down to 12.1 percent expressed in kuna and 36.3 percent expressed in
dollars.
(hina) it sb