Despite an array of tax breaks, investors remain wary of Croatia – deterred by what some see as a negative entrepreneurial climate and the slow and cumbersome bureaucracy.
Despite the calls by Croatian politicians for investors to make use of business opportunities in the EU’s newest member state, domestic and foreign investors are increasingly keeping their cash elsewhere.
An expert from the Economic Institute in Zagreb, Zeljko Lovrincevic, blamed the negative trend on “the lack of a positive entrepreneurial climate” in the country.
This trend is reflected in official statistics about Croatia’s Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, in 2015.
Following the prolonged recession that started with the global financial crisis in 2008, FDI in Croatia surged 2014 following EU accession in summer 2013, bringing a total of almost 2.9 billion euro of investment into Croatia.
However, in the third quarter of 2015, FDI was 147.9 million euros, 256.5 million less than in the first quarter of the same year.