The Governor of the Croatian National Bank (CNB), Boris Vujčić, said in the Croatian Parliament on Thursday that, unlike the forecasts of economic growth, the projections of inflation are dominated by negative risks, such as those that could lead to higher rates, reports Poslovni Dnevnik. In Parliament, where he presented the CNB’s semi-annual information on the financial situation, price stability, and implementation of monetary policy in the second half of last year, Vujčić reminded of the CNB’s projections for economic growth of 8.5 percent this year, and 1 percent in 2022, which he estimated, will have a positive impact on employment and wages.
“Due to the still great uncertainties, it is possible that these projections will not be realized, but unlike the previous ones, the positive and negative risks are balanced,” said Vujčić. He explained that the negative risks to the economy relate to the possibility that the epidemiological situation in the euro area will worsen in the fourth quarter and the restrictive measures will be tightened, which would result in weaker foreign demand and negatively affect Croatian exports.
When it comes to inflation, it will accelerate to 2.3 percent this year, and slow slightly to 2.1 percent in 2022. In the previous part of the year, the acceleration of inflation occurred mainly under the influence of rising energy and food prices, said Vujčić, emphasizing that the projections of inflation are dominated by negative risks, ie those that could lead to higher rates.
Previously, in mid-September, Vujčić himself commented on the expectations about the inflation rate in Croatia regarding the next insertion of the euro as the official currency in the country, commenting about the situation in the United States, that ”it has a higher inflation rate, but the economy is overheated there, they also have strong fiscal stimuli that are stronger than European ones and I do not see that at this time such an inflation rate could happen in Croatia, we expect that year-round inflation rate to be 2.2 percent. This is, in principle, the goal of the European Central Bank, so we should not be concerned about that. The problem is if there is a change in expectations, wage growth, but we do not see that at the moment”.
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