Croatia's economy will record a 1.5 percent drop this year, and in 2011 it is expected to grow at a rate of 1.6 percent, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its regular autumn world economy outlook on Wednesday.
In its spring outlook published in April, the IMF forecast a GDP growth for Croatia of 0.2 percent in 2010, and of 2.5 percent in 2011.
The annual inflation rate measured by consumer prices in Croatia is expected to be 1.9 percent, as against the previous forecast of 2.3 percent. In 2011, inflation is expected to grow to 2.8 percent, a forecast identical to the spring forecast.
Croatia's current account deficit in 2010 is estimated at 3.8 percent of GDP, as against 6.3 percent in the spring outlook. The current account deficit in 2011 is expected to be 4.7 percent, whereas in the spring outlook it was estimated at 6.8 percent. The deficit forecast for last year was reduced to 5.3 percent, as against 5.6 percent in the spring outlook.
For the entire region of New Europe, which along with Croatia also covers Turkey, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the IMF forecasts for this year an economic growth of 3.7 percent, which is to slow down to 3.1 percent in 2011. Compared to the spring outlook, the forecast for economic growth in the region in 2010 was increased by 0.8 percentage points, but the forecast for 2011 was reduced by 0.3 percentage points.
As for the global economy, the IMF has increased its growth forecast for 2010 by 0.2 percentage points, to 4.8 percent, reducing the forecast for 2011 by 0.1 percentage points to 4.2 percent, according to the IMF's latest world economy outlook.
