Deloitte conducted the survey to measure Business Sentiment Index among 200 senior executives in six Central European countries: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. All but Croatia are European Union members.

In Croatia, the survey was conducted among some 30 businessmen from various sectors.

As many as 66.7 percent of them feel the economy will deteriorate, according to this year's second edition of a survey on the Business Sentiment Index which Deloitte manager Slaven Curic presented in Zagreb last Tuesday. In the region, 40% of respondents expressed a positive outlook.

When it comes to payment terms, Croatian professionals reported significant delays in payment of debt to their companies.

In the region, 50% of leading business people believe that sales revenues would increase in the next 12 months, with the most optimistic Poles.

In Croatia, 46.7% respondents predict rise in revenues and 43.3% fear they will drop in revenues in the next 12 months.

Deloitte analysts say pessimism in Croatia could not be connected with macroeconomic indicators, as those indicators are not better in the other five countries covered by the survey. Analysts do not rule out a possibility that various corporate scandals that have recently broken have affected the business sentiment in Croatia.

Croatian executives just as their colleagues in central Europe are optimistic about credit availability to their companies in the future.

They also show similar expectations when it comes to the success of the launching of their products on the market in the next 12 months.