Economy of Croatia

In a little corner of the massive convention center where the Frankfurt Motor Show is held, a relatively unknown Japanese company revealed a car with some mega-sized claims. The company is called Aspark, and its car is called the Owl, a name that apparently derives from the butterfly doors that representatives said look like an owl’s wings.

Russia's Sberbank told BIRN that it believes Croatia's troubled private company Agrokor can be restored to normal activity, but wants fulfilment of its demands first.

Russian bank Sberbank has initiated proceedings before the Commercial Court in Belgrade, Serbia, to acquire two companies owned by the troubled Croatian retail giant Agrokor.

Sberbank launched the court proceedings on the basis of loans it gave to two companies, Jamnica and Konzum, which are owned by Agrokor - and which in turn own Mivela and IDEA in Serbia.

Croatia's troubled giant Agrokor will start paying out the first 18 million euros to cover its debts to its small suppliers, the state-appointed extraordinary manager, Ante Ramljak, said on Wednesday.

Despite the steep loss, CEO Tomislav Čizmić remains buoyant, stressing that the company is stable and has been gaining market share, which will be crucial as the Agrokor story unfolds.

Croatia's maritime, transport and infrastructure ministry has signed a contract with the World Bank to find a strategic partner to privatize or recapitalize the struggling state-owned company Croatia Airlines.

Transport minister Sinisa Hajdas Doncic confirmed the agreement on Tuesday.

Figures published by the Croatian national bank, HNB, show Croatia earned a healthy 7.4 billion euro from tourism in 2014, which was 2.8 per cent better than the figures for 2013.

New estimates of Croatia's likely GDP growth from the World Bank are not looking good for the country as it battles to exit a six-year economic crisis.

The World Bank in June 2014 estimated Croatia's GDP growth that year would be minus-0.5 per cent, rising to 1.2 per cent growth in 2015.

BELGRADE - Serbian foreign trade increased by 6.9 percent in the first eight months of 2014 compared to the same period last year and reached USD 23.68 billion, the deficit dropped by 2.9 percent, and the export-import ratio rose to 72.7 percent.

Croatia's National Bank said in data published on Monday that government debt had reached almost 30 billion euro in June 2014 as the country's economy endured a sixth year of recession.

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