According to a statement released by the Zagreb-based Bonline on Monday, Dun&Bradstreet finds the Croatian government's economic recovery plan to be a positive step in endeavours to go out of the crisis.
"In a highly positive development, the Croatian government, has, for the first time since the economic and financial crisis hit the world economy, elaborated a comprehensive Economic Recovery Programme covering both short- and long-term priorities," reads the statement.
Measures include "boosting the privatisation process; lowering the fiscal burden on enterprises in the form of lower para-fiscal payments; boosting liquidity in the economy by ensuring low public sector payment arrears; rationalising the income tax regime by changing some tax rates and abolishing most tax reliefs; and increasing the efficiency of the public sector, including a 5% headcount reduction."
Although the D&B analysts find the Programme to be remain short on details, they positively assess the announced abolishment of the so-called crisis tax imposed on salaries last summer, as well as the decision of the government not to pay holiday bonuses to public sector workers and to settle all outstanding liabilities of the state within shortened deadlines.
The D&B's latest proprietary cross-border payments performance data show the improvement in prompt payment of Croatian companies to foreign companies since the start of 2010, which is partly ascribed to the improvement of payments performance of the public sector.
"The mix of structural and short-term tactical changes seems appropriate and should help to lead the economy out of recession by the end of the year," reads the statement.