ZAGREB, Jan 22(Hina) - Croatia has registered the highest economic growth among countries in transition over the past decade along Poland and hopes the trend will continue, central bank deputy governor Boris Vujcic said at "Croatia
2020", a conference on economic transition which the Konrad Adenauer Foundation organised in Zagreb on Thursday.
ZAGREB, Jan 22(Hina) - Croatia has registered the highest economic
growth among countries in transition over the past decade along Poland
and hopes the trend will continue, central bank deputy governor Boris
Vujcic said at "Croatia 2020", a conference on economic transition
which the Konrad Adenauer Foundation organised in Zagreb on Thursday.#L#
Croatia's annual economic growth rate may range from three, 4.4 to six
percent which, along with a low inflation, means that Croatia's GDP in
2020 could reach the current European Union rate, Vujcic said.
He recalled that Portugal and Spain, in the past 12 years since
admission to the EU, had a three-percent economic growth rate, while
Greece's was two and Ireland's seven percent.
Eighty-nine percent of all Croatian assets are in banks, while 2.9
percent are in investment funds, and it is the latter, alongside
pension funds, that Vujcic thinks will gain strong momentum in the
future. He estimates that by 2020 investment funds could account for
33 percent of GDP, while the share of pension funds could grow from
0.4 to 16.5 percent, as could that of the insurance sector, whose
premiums today account for 3.1 percent of GDP, which is above Hungary
and Greece.
Participants in the conference also spoke about the need of reducing
the external debt and the balance of payments deficit, of developing
research and increasing economic competitiveness.
(Hina) ha sb