ZAGREB, June 11, 2019 – The Karlovac-based HS Produkt arms manufacturer was given two Financial Agency (FINA) Golden Balance awards on Tuesday – for the most financially successful business and for the most successful manufacturer of 2018.
Of the 131,118 businesses which submitted financial statements, FINA shortlisted 3,930 – 208 micro-enterprises, 2,527 small enterprise, 978 medium-sized enterprises and 217 big companies.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Economy Minister Darko Horvat recalled that the economy grew 2.6% last year, and said the first quarter of 2019, when GDP rose 3.9% on the year, had opened “a new perspective” and that Q2 “will be similar.”
“If we succeed and persist with the National Reform Plan, if we absorb the entire 10.7 billion euro allocated from the EU’s structural funds, we will end with 5% growth in 2020,” Horvat said.
He said the Economy Ministry and FINA cooperated on several projects, including a law that would make it possible to exchange e-invoices through the existing infrastructure as of next year. “We will be able to monitor businesses on a monthly basis and discover early on which ones are in trouble so as to avoid omissions which cost us 4.5 billion kuna in state budget funds this year and last.”
Speaking of the Croatian Employers’ Association’s Score, Horvat said it interpreted the facts pertaining to 2018 with a different methodology.
We in the government are patient and waiting for the 2019 Score because there will be no enforced guarantees for the shipyards and budget funds won’t be spent on unpromising industries, he added.
Economic analyst Velimir Šonje presented the business results of Croatian enterprises in 2018.
Last year 131,000 enterprises submitted financial statements, as against 120,000 in 2017. The number of employees increased 5.2% to 940,000 and two-thirds of the increase was generated by micro-enterprises.
Croatian enterprises’ revenues in 2018 went up 8.6% to HRK 751.2 billion and the fastest growth was again recorded by micro-enterprises, whose revenues jumped 29% to HRK 102.1 billion.
Šonje said the number and share of big companies in Croatia’s corporate pyramid remained unchanged, dominated by energy companies and retail chains.
Micro-businesses continue to growth fast, creating the highest number of jobs, and keeping this pace is important for preserving the development process and the structural changes that will happen in the long term, after years of growth, he added.
More news about Croatian economy can be found in the Business section.
