PM: GDP growth because govt dealing with vital issues

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Tuesday said that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in Q4 of 2016 of 3.4% was due to the government dealing with vital issues and because it was doing what the people expected of it and that is economic growth.

Addressing a conference on population trends and their impact on the pension system, Plenkovic warned that over the decade 2001 - 2011, Croatia lost more than 150,000 residents, that the birth rate was falling, young people were emigrating and the average age of the population had increased by almost 10 years, which, he said, put Croatia among countries with one of the most ageing populations.

Population trends, he added, are reflected in the pension system, which absorbs about HRK 3 billion from the budget each month and which is unsustainable in the long run.

"It is our duty to improve the quality of life in Croatia in order to stop the process of young people emigrating. We intend to use all available funds so that young people remain in the country and meet their demands here, find a job and start a family," Plenkovic said. He added that it was also necessary to include Croatia's emigrant community in the social life of the country as much as possible and encourage their repatriation.

Plenkovic recalled all the measures his government had adopted in the past four months to boost population growth such as the tax reform, raising the amount of personal deductions for children, subsidising youth employment, removing red tape, increasing salaries for public servants and introducing subsidies for first-time home buyers.

He stressed that in the second half of this year the government planned to increase allowances for maternity/parental leave from HRK 2,660 to HRK 4,000 and that budget funds for that purpose were HRK 150 million higher than last year.

State Secretary for Demography Marin Strmota presented Croatia's demographic strategy and underlined that it was unrealistic to expect a turnaround in the trend overnight.

The strategy incorporates allowances for maternity and parental leave, flexible working hours for people with children, including work from home, as well as exempting mothers with small children from working on Sundays. The strategy also incorporates services for children and families, housing subsidies for young families, active migration policies and promotion of family values.

Text: Hina

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