One influential Croatian businessman believes that Croatian currency is overvalued.
One of the most successful Croatian entrepreneurs Danko Končar gave an interview on Tuesday in which he advocated for devaluation of Croatian currency, reports N1 on April 26, 2017.
“We have a situation that today it is more profitable to import many products because they are cheaper than to produce them here. You are actually exporting jobs from Croatia to elsewhere in Europe. One of the arguments against the currency devaluation is that it would lead to an increase in debts, so that citizens would pay more given that almost all the loans are denominated in foreign currency, but would be other beneficial effects,” said Končar and added that “large nations like Japan use their national banks to push the economy towards the exports.”
“I think the devaluation effects should be fully calculated. It is not enough just to say that debts would rise by 3.5 billion kuna. That is not enough to be against it. According to my estimates, if the kuna were to devaluate by just only two percent, as proposed by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, about 100,000 new jobs would be created and exports from Croatia would increase,” said Končar. He added that he recently met with President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and talked about forming a team for such an initiative.
Končar said he believed that the government did not favour Agrokor owner Ivica Todorić with the so-called “Lex Agrokor”.
“I do not believe that it was done to favour him, because it was Lex Agrokor and not Lex Todorić. That was a good move and the government is right in trying to save the Agrokor group, no matter who the owner is. What Agrokor presents has some value in the lives of each and every one of us,” said Končar and added that Todorić had long delayed the solution and has therefore found himself in such a situation.
“He pretended that someone will come and save everything, but that happens only in Greek tragedies, not in real life. Agrokor was burdened with interest which it could not withstand for long time, and at the same time it was losing its monopoly position, since others came with better terms and began to take away some of its extra profits which it used to have thanks to the monopoly position. He did not have the solution which could be applied immediately,” said Končar.
