Economy

No, this is not a story about the fear of computers. This is the story of how well-established civilization gains can be transformed to send the citizens, businesspeople, and civil servants on a terrible odyssey with entirely new bureaucratic processes.

The year 2017 brought wins and failures. The Ukrainian Government was able to approve important reforms, which was still not sufficient to receive scheduled assistance from the IMF and the EU. 2018 will be tough as Ukraine should make large progress in many areas, while the 2019 elections are approaching.

On December 7, 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament had the day of Budget-2018. During one day, the Verkhovna Rada amended the Budget Code and Tax Code, as well as adopted the State Budget Law for 2018. The decisions were taken in a very non-transparent way with changes approved from the voice.

With several policy proposals on introducing a progressive taxation model put on the table, the upcoming parliamentary session in Lithuania is sure to become a heavily debated one. In fact, every tenth taxpayer is threatened with higher tax burden as personal income tax might increase from a flat 15%up to 20%.

As many as 81% of Lithuanians find their knowledge of economics insufficient. Making economic decisions at every step of the way, Lithuanians compare their understanding of economics to that of physics or political sciences, but find themselves less confident in economics than in computer literacy or mathematics.

Fear that people will not buy new flats because they will have higher interest rates. If the people do not invest more, the prices of these assets will stagnate or fall. Whoever buys in times of a loose monetary policy, wins. When screws begin to tighten, the winner is the one who sells first.

At the end of the day, efforts to protect domestic businesses are always paid by the consumers. Nothing is free, the same is true also for protectionism. It leads to higher prices and worse quality of services that protected businesses offer.

CEA has published its Croatia 2025 Vision which contains concrete market reform ideas for minimum 30% increase of competitiveness and economic freedom. All ideas are based on relevant world methodologies with concrete policy direction adjusted to practical challenges.

Now, the ruling party wants to get rid of the private enterprises from the emergency medical services. The regulations provided by the draft bill, currently proceeded by the Parliament, constitute a model example of a regulatory expropriation.

Croatia is currently 61% economically free. There is no country with more than 90%. Therefore, Croatia\'s competitive gap is much more than 39% deficit in economic freedom. Croatia\'s challenge is to compete with much better countries of Central Eastern Europe.