€5.1 Billion Brought Into Croatia Last Year From Croatians Living Abroad
According to Croatia Week report, the surge in personal remittances came as a result of the increase in employee compensation, which takes into account the income of seafarers, and also daily commuters to neighbouring countries, among others, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
These earnings registered a surge of 23.8 per cent, reaching a total of €2.7 billion.
Personal transfers from emigrants in countries like Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the United States also experienced a surge of 17.1 per cent, reaching a total of €2.4 billion. Even though it was expected that foreign payments would experience a decrease following the weakening of emigration waves, there was noted a strong increase in inflows from abroad.
Last year, it was also noted an increase in the number of Croats interested in working in neighbouring countries, with Slovenia recording a surge of two and half times in cross-border labour migrants from Croatia.
The figures provided by the Croatian National Bank (CNB), revealed that Croatia has a relatively large net inflow of personal remittances in comparison to other countries with migration histories. The same shows that personal remittances marked a notable increase since entering the European Union, with their share in GDP reaching a total of 6.8 per cent in the past few years.
The CNB report noted it expects this trend to continue, especially with the Balkan’s country accession to the borderless area of Schengen which is set to increase daily migration of workers.
The increase in the number of those interested to work remotely, is also noted in Croatia, with its citizens working for foreign companies or returning to this country in order to work for these companies through an employment contract or establishing their own company.
According to CNB, younger generations value flexibility as well as remote work options and are interested in working remotely for companies located outside the country, in addition to the fact that Croatia’s Digital Nomad visa is among the most favourite ones in Europe.
At the same time, a total of 70 per cent of younger Croatians change jobs for a period within two years, while the majority of them prefer working remotely even for companies outside Croatia.
The figures provided by Trading Economics showed that last year there was an ongoing increase in the number of remittances in Croatia.
It showed that despite the ongoing increase registered until the third quarter, there was a decline in the fourth quarter, or more specifically remittances in this country declined to €866.80 in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to €931.20 registered in the third quarter of last year.
