March 19, 2020 – A look at the first ten measures proposed to help the Croatian economy during the corona crisis.
Following the decision to prevent the rise in prices of critical products for supplying the Croatian market and exporting those products for which a shortage in Croatia could appear, Minister Darko Horvat presented the first ten measures from the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Crafts, which were proposed at a Government session on Tuesday, reports Vecernji List on March 16, 2020.
These measures will be aimed primarily at entrepreneurs and craftspeople.
“The meaning of all the measures we plan to take and which we have held very intensive discussions about so far is to preserve jobs and the domestic economy, and to provide the necessary liquidity to our entrepreneurs, through a moratorium or deferrals of loan obligations, the introduction of new credit lines for working capital funds and the like,” explained the minister. Horvat also stressed that changes in certain economic relations are expected in the coming period, both nationally and globally.
“At the moment, we are aware that carriers, traders and exporters suffer the most, but we must take into account all possible scenarios, considering all branches of the Croatian economy, from craftspeople, through micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, to large companies,” said Horvat.
You can find the suggested measures below:
1. Reprogram existing loans (with the introduction of a grace period in repayment of the loan principal) and introduce a moratorium on the credit obligations of HBOR clients and commercial banks on existing placements;
2. Approval of new liquidity loans to economic operators for financing salaries, overheads, and other basic operating expenses, in cooperation with commercial banks;
3. Approval of guarantees (insurance policy) to export commercial banks and HBOR within the framework of the guarantee fund for export insurance;
4. Increase the scope of the guarantee fund for export insurance by including the tourism sector, the indirect exporting entities or the suppliers of direct exporters in the eligible beneficiaries;
5. Provide for the possibility of introducing, through the Amendments to the Investment Promotion Act, the extension of deadlines for the implementation of investment projects and the introduction of an additional grace period of three years to preserve jobs;
6. Intervention in the purchase of surpluses in livestock and crop production, fruit and vegetables, and other products from potentially endangered industrial and agricultural producers;
7. Increasing the rate of the HAMAG-BICRO guarantee from 65% to 80% of the loan principal with a shortened processing procedure and an additional allocation of EUR 15 million for Micro working capital loans (up to EUR 25,000), with a maximum interest rate of 1%;
8. Moratorium on all installments of ESIF Micro and Small Loans by 31/12/2020;
9. Increasing the de minimis grant limit from EUR 200,000 to EUR 500,000;
10.The possibility to mobilize part of the budget as a contribution to sectoral intervention grants to entrepreneurs (national grant).
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