Quality of life in Croatia allegedly is improving in line with the level of its economic development.
If Croatia wants to continue to increase the quality of life of its citizens in the long run, it will have to put a lot of effort into the growth of its economy, according to the latest survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled “The opportunity for private sector to improve the quality of life: Assessment of sustainable economic development in 2016”, reports Index.hr on July 26, 2016.
The research by the BCG reveals that Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are among the leading countries in the world when it comes to the successful transformation of the economic growth into the quality of life. However, the growth of the Croatian economy does not follow the development of the country to the adequate degree.
“This year, Croatia was the best in converting the results of the economic growth into the quality of life of its citizens according to BCG’s SEDA analysis which tracks economic indicators, indicators of investment in services of public interest and indicators related to sustainability of the society. Therefore, all three dimensions should be taken into account in order to properly interpret the results”, said Tomislav Čorak, the head of BCG for Croatia.
Economic indicators relate to the income which represents the gross domestic product per capita adjusted by purchasing power parity, economic stability in terms of the absolute value of GDP, and employment. Croatia has made some slight improvement in revenue growth and economic stability, but is far behind in terms of employment. The conclusion is that even this small number of Croatian who are employed is moving in positive direction primarily due to a good tourist season and growth in exports.
Indicators of investments in services of public interest are pertaining to the quality of infrastructure (telecommunications, transport and water management), as well as the availability of services in health and education. In Croatia, all citizens have the right to education and healthcare, and taking into account high quality infrastructure, it can be concluded that Croatia has historically had very good conditions for translating economic results into the benefit for its citizens.
Finally, according to indicators of the society’s sustainability, such as environment, public institutions, NGOs and equality of income, Croatia again has high scores as a result of its beautiful nature, legislation adapted to the highest EU standards, presence of non-governmental organizations and just minor fluctuations in incomes for the majority of population.
