The survey was conducted by the Deloitte consulting firm in Croatia and Central Europe, comparing the views of CFOs in Croatia and their colleagues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
About 40 Croatian CFOs, most of them from the real sector, took part in the survey.
While Croatian CFOs forecast GDP growth of 1.5% for 2016, they expect the national economy to grow at a rate of 2.5% in 2017. Most of them think that Brexit will not affect their companies' business.
Fifty-one percent of Croatian CFOs expect a drop in the unemployment rate, and nearly 62% expect an increase in their company's revenue. Most of the Croatian CFOs, or 61.5%, more than other respondents, do not expect an increase in capital investment this year.
The survey shows that Croatian CFOs are not inclined to take more risks, with as many as 80% of them saying this is not a good time to expose oneself to balance-sheet risks, the same as last year.
Drazen Rajakovic of Deloitte says that this shows that despite certain optimism, there is still a disinclination to invest.
Croatian CFOs see borrowing from banks least favourably of all respondents. Rajakovic says that this is so because Croatian companies are more indebted, i.e. they have a higher debt-to-principal ratio, than companies in other Central European countries.
On the other hand, Croatian CFOs look more positively at business financing from EU funds, with as many as 92.3% of them saying that these funds are the most attractive source of financing.
Nearly 60% of Croatian CFOs are not planning any business digitisation projects this year, and 77% of them say their companies offer no programmes to encourage innovation.