As Novi list/Jagoda Maric writes on the 30th of September, 2019, revenue generated from Croatian tourism last year stood at 600 million euros, or about four and a half billion kuna less than any official estimates have claimed so far, according to the regular five-year revision of statistics on Croatia’s foreign exchange by the Croatian National Bank (CNB/HNB).
The revenue apparently generated by Croatia from the arrival of foreign tourists is estimated to stand at 9.48 billion euros (currently) for the year 2018. However, the audit which was based on much more accurate, MUP (Ministry of the Interior) data on the arrival of foreign tourists, showed that in this segment, Croatia actually earned 600 million euros less.
This of course also means that the share of Croatian tourism in the country’s GDP is lower by at least one percentage point than was previously believed, accepted and pushed. In terms of tourism revenue, the Croatian National Bank’s audit for each year since 2003 has actually reduced foreign tourism revenue.
According to the new calculation methodology, revenue generated by Croatian tourism during the first half of this year was 2.7 billion euros, compared to the 2.55 billion euros recorded in the same period last year.
As part of the review of international indicators, the Croatian National Bank also included a larger calculation of workers’ remittances, that is, it included an estimate of remittances, but also of what foreign workers employed here in Croatia send back to their respective homelands.
Last year, over 462 million euros of these informal workers’ remittances arrived in Croatia from abroad, while 152 million euros of such remittances left Croatia. This means that, when including informal workers’ remittances in the picture, 1.17 billion euros were sent to Croatia by people from abroad, while foreign workers from Croatia sent 303 million euros out of the country, back to their own countries.
The Croatian National also decided to include used car imports over the past fifteen years, too, which (on a yearly level) involve costs ranging from 41 to 317 million euros, and this has increased significantly since Croatia’s accession to the European Union (EU) back in July 2013.
The correction of international indicators also implies the inclusion of trade credits in gross external debt, which is a delay or payment deadline for imported goods of up to six months. Thus, the estimated amount of these loans last year was 3.9 billion euros, which would mean that Croatia’s external debt was 42.7 billion euros.
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