The existing model, that is Croatia's economic policy based on the neo-liberal economic model, is in a crisis and should be replaced by a new sustainable policy, the president of the Croatian Economists' Association (HDE), Ljubo Jurcic said in his keynote speech at the opening of the 19th conference of the association in the seaside resort of Opatija on Wednesday.
The traditional three-day meeting on the current economic issues and economic forecasts has gathered many experts, pundits, and representatives of the executive branch of power, including President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor.
As for the crisis in Croatia, Jurcic said that one of the main sources of the crisis was an atypical model of the economy which did not put production and job creation at the top place.
We will have to organise our economy or foreigners will do it for us, he said.
According to him, the crisis of the neo-liberal system is in progress, and as there are no ideal conditions, someone has to intervene in the economy and that is the state.
According to HDE figures, Croatia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2011 contracted by 11.4 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
From September 2008 to September this year, some 150,000 jobs were shed. The liquidity crunch worsened and the rate of employment of 54 per cent in Croatia was the lowest in comparison to all European Union members.
