Croatian National Bank (HNB) Governor Boris Vujčić expressed hope that the coming days will bring a softening of plans to impose tariffs, helping avoid worst-case scenarios such as a significant drop in GDP or a rise in prices. He commented on the financial disruption caused by Trump’s tariffs during the HNB’s Open Day event, reports Jutarnji List
“This kind of tariff introduction is not good. If tariffs were beneficial, we would have had them already. For decades, we have worked to reduce barriers to the free flow of goods and services, and now we are heading strongly in the opposite direction. This could lead to reduced economic activity, slower GDP growth, and rising prices – inflation. After all, a tariff is nothing more than a tax on goods or services crossing borders, which increases the price,” said the governor.
The disruption has already reached the domestic capital market. On Friday, the main stock indices on the Zagreb Stock Exchange dropped sharply, following global market corrections, with very high trading volumes. The focus was on the shares of Ing-Grad and Končar, according to a HINA analysis.
Stock Market Plunge
On Friday, the Crobex index plunged 2.76% to 3,174 points, while the Crobex10 fell 2.35% to 1,994 points. Both indices have been in decline for the third trading day in a row, and are now down more than 4.5% for the week, erasing all gains made since the beginning of the year. The domestic capital market mirrored the sharp corrections on European exchanges, where major indices dropped more than 4%, compounding Thursday’s heavy losses.