Rohatinski: The worst crisis is over

Rohatinski holds that Croatia has gone through the worst of its economic shock and is ready to begin a gradual recovery.

Rohatinski holds that Croatia has gone through the worst of its economic shock and is ready to begin a gradual recovery.

According to Dow Jones Newswires,  Croatian economist and the fourth Governor of the Croatian National Bank, Zeljko Rohatinski, believes that maintaining a stable exchange rate and reducing foreign debt is the key in avoiding financial crisis.

He also said that Croatia has passed the worst of its economic shock and is ready to begin a gradual recovery.  A key sector in recovery process, he says, is tourism which is doing very well, while Croatian industry still needs to do some catching up.

- Recovery process will be very slow and long. However, economic activity slowdown is nearly over – Rohatinski said.

Since global recession affected investment funds and loans, Croatia went through the worst crisis in decades. Compared to the second quarter of last year, this year’s National Product fell by 6%. Rohatinski  says said that he expects this decline to slow down, and predicts a total drop of 5.5% by the end of the year.

End of crisis on the horizon

Vedran Bajer who works at Moj Posao, job search website, says that number of paid ads dropped by nearly 4o percent.

- Our economy is based on the loans. No one can get any credits right now and that is the reason our business are declining - Bajer said.

Rohatinski holds that the state must help in repairing the damage, but feels optimistic regarding the future and believes that Croatia will see the end of crisis sooner than other European countries.