The Government of Republic of Croatia introduced a set of new measures that should help preserve jobs in the private sector. These measures apply to 80,000 people and are worth HRK 2.1bn.

Starting last Saturday, Croatia entered what can be considered as a “soft lockdown”, as the Croatian Government imposed further restrictions to tackle the spread of the virus. The current measures, which include the closure of all restaurants, bars, sport centres etc. are by far the strictest measures taken since the March lockdown. The aforementioned restrictions will be in place at least until 21 December.

Since then, it did not take a long time for the Croatian Government to respond with a new set of measures which should help preserve jobs in the private sector. To be specific, The Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, presented new set of measures yesterday, which should aid in preserving jobs. As a reminder, previous measures, for which HRK 7.4 bn had been paid, had saved 630,000 jobs, and the measures had also helped 107,000 companies.

The Government noted that the presented measures apply to more than 80,000 people. The measure for the preservation of jobs will continue, in the amount of HRK 4,000 per worker during the suspension of work with the exemption from paying contributions, for which approximately HRK 320m will be provided, or HRK 470m including contributions.

Next, a part or all of the fixed costs will be covered during the suspension of work for sectors now affected by the new measures. Such measures apply for a revenue decline of more than 60% in December. According to the Governments estimates, this measure should amount to around HRK 250m.

Furthermore, in cooperation with the agency HAMAG BICRO, a new package of so-called Covid-loans is prepared in the amount of HRK 1.3 billion.