November the 20th, 2025 – The European Commission (EC) has listed Croatia as being among the countries with the highest economic growth, but that problematic old work force issue is still a big problem.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last week, the European Commission (EC) published its economic forecast according to which Croatia is among the countries with the highest economic growth. National GDP growth of 3.2 percent is predicted this year, with growth of 2.9 percent to follow next year. For once, Croatia is at the very top of the European Union (EU) list in a very positive regard. This doesn’t mean there aren’t still pressing issues to be resolved, however, and the primary one for Croatia regards the work force.

It isn’t all great news, as Croatia is also at the top of the EU in terms of inflation, which will remain high until the end of the year, standing at a worrying 4.3 percent. The forecast for next year is for it to finally drop down to 2.8 percent, but experts still aren’t sure how things will pan out in reality.

“These are certainly the wishes of the Croatian Government and of the European Commission. Croatia is one of the few EU and Eurozone countries that will have difficulty containing inflation in the coming years. We must be sure that the inflation rate will stabilise, but we also need to be aware that it will not fall at the pace we’d ideally like it to” explained Damir Novotny, an economic analyst for Dnevnik.hr.

Croatia has the highest economic growth in the EU, and with that, it’s also predicted to have a record low unemployment rate – less than five percent, and the problem is a chronic domestic labour shortage. “Without importing labour from abroad, this kind of economic growth simply cannot be achieved, the budget cannot be filled, salaries cannot be paid and pensions cannot be increased. We strongly need to import labour at this time,” concluded Novotny.

Croatia has faced serious labour force problems for some time now, and they only amplified in much more recent years with an influx of foreign labour imported from distant third countries. While empty positions and gaps were once filled with employees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, for whom language barriers didn’t pose a problem, we’re now seeing more and more people from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and elsewhere in Croatian shops, bakeries, as food delivery drivers and more. Many worry this is slowly erasing the face of the Croatian culture visitors come to enjoy, particularly in summer along the coastline.

Just five or so years ago, the likelihood of being served your gregada in an authentic old Dalmatian restaurant on Hvar was next to zero, with the fact that a local person who likely grew up on such cuisine was serving you that dish being part of the experience. While the labour market clearly needs an extreme amount of help for a myriad of reasons, tensions surrounding immigration and fears for local culture being destabilised are mounting.


 


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