ZAGREB, April 11, 2018 – The Croatian National Bank (HNB) Council on Tuesday adopted a monetary policy projection for 2018-21 and considered a report on the banking system in 2017, the central bank said in a press release.
Monthly statistics point to economic activity growth at the start of this year after a temporary stagnation at the end of 2017.
At the same time, the growth of the number of persons employed and the decrease of unemployment continued, consumer prices in February decreased 0.1% from January, while annually inflation slowed to 0.8%.
The monetary policy remained expansionary, as indicated by the highest ever level of available money, the continued decrease of interest rates and stronger corporate and retail lending.
The last quarter of 2017 saw a deterioration on the current and capital accounts and an increase in the net foreign debt, but in 2017 the surplus of the current and capital accounts increased and the external debt continued to decrease. Last year also saw a marked fiscal adjustment and available data indicate favourable trends at the beginning of 2018.
