The renowned rating agency Fitch has reaffirmed Croatia's long-term credit rating of 'BBB-' in its latest report on December 4th, and assessed the outlook as stable.
In June, Fitch predicted that the Croatian economy would fall by 8.4 percent this year, and the latest report expects GDP to fall by 9 percent.
Despite better-than-expected results in tourism, the larger decline in GDP is due to the worsening epidemiological situation, which has led to a reduction in personal consumption and exports of services, and short-term forecasts are poor due to new epidemiological measures, reports HINA.
On the positive side, Fitch points to good export results, and that exporters have proven resilient to the challenges of the pandemic. Good export results prevented a more drastic drop in GDP, Fitch said.