Croatian delegation travels to Washington.
A delegation of Croatian government, which includes representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Croatian National Bank (HNB), will participate in the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. The delegation will be led by Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, reports tportal.hr on April 20, 2017.
During its stay in the United States, the delegation will hold a series of meetings with representatives of the World Bank. Minister Marić will meet with vice president of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia Cyril Muller, with senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank Paul Romero, and with executive director Frank Heemskerk.
The topics of the meetings with the World Bank representatives will include the state of the existing projects, further activities on the preparation and approval of new projects, and the future cooperation of Croatia with the World Bank.
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Croatian National Bank will also hold meetings with representatives of the IMF, including with director of the Department for Europe Paul Thomsen, executive director Anthony De Lannoy, and mission director for Croatia Khaled Sakr. They will discuss macroeconomic situation in Croatia and measures of monetary and fiscal policy.
The IMF published its spring economic estimates on Tuesday, according to which the Croatian gross domestic product (GDP) will grow 2.9 percent this year, revising its previous estimate of 2.1 percent. In 2018, the international financial institution expects a mild slowdown in economic activity, with the growth of 2.6 percent of GDP.
In relation to the previous estimates, the IMF increased inflation expectations in Croatia this year from 0.8 to 1.1 percent, as well as the surplus in the balance of payments from 2.2 to 2.8 percent of GDP.
As for the unemployment rate, the IMF expects that it will fall to 13.9 percent, which is two percentage points less than in the previous forecast released in October last year. In 2018, the IMF expects further reduction in the unemployment rate in Croatia to 13.5 percent, while the inflation rate should remain at 1.1 percent.
