By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
POREC, Croatia, April 23 (Reuters) - The streets of Porec are almost deserted for now, but the picture-postcard Croatian resort is gearing up for what it hopes will be a busy summer tourist season, thanks to efforts to keep visitors and staff as COVID-free as possible.
Launched on Friday down the Adriatic coast in Dubrovnik, a multi-million-euro government campaign aims to get around 80,000 tourism workers vaccinated against the coronavirus in coming weeks, while offering guest subsidised tests.
Porec’s hoteliers expect its current trickle of visitors to turn into something more like the usual flood from mid-May as travel restrictions are gradually eased around Europe, and they are making sure they are well prepared.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
ZAGREB (Reuters) - Police officers from three other European Union nations will help their colleagues in Slovenia to monitor its border with Croatia, amid concerns about a possible increase in illegal migrants as weather conditions improve.
More than a million migrants and asylum seekers, mostly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, entered the European Union via the so-called Balkan route in 2015-16, prompting countries to tighten border security.
Croatia, like Slovenia, is also a member of the EU but is not in Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone. This means migrants who reach Slovenia can then travel much more easily to richer EU member states, with Germany the most popular destination.
By Reuters Staff
(Adds details, inflation forecast)
ZAGREB, April 12 (Reuters) - Croatia’s central bank Monday increased its growth forecast for this year to 5.9% from 5.0% projected last December.
“We expect a stronger recovery of domestic demand this year,” the central bank said in a statement.
It said some risks remained related to the results of the summer tourism season, which is seen bringing higher income than was the case last year. The worst case scenario envisages growth of just 2.8%, the bank said.
Last year Croatia’s economy contracted 8.4%. due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The central bank also said it expected the average inflation this year accelerating to 1.7%, up from its earlier forecast of 1.0%, due to higher prices for petrol and other energy commodities. Last year the average inflation amounted to 0.1%.