The Deloitte Business Sentiment Index shows Croatian economists and businessmen are the most-pessimistic in Central Europe about economic prospects during the next six months.
The Index shows 66.7 per cent of interviewed Croatian economists and businessmen believe the economy will worsen. However, that is still a vast improvement over the 89.7 per cent who said the same thing in September.
The report reflects the latest views of some of the top executives at almost 200 of the largest companies in the six Central European countries Poland, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia.
In Croatia, 30 companies anonymously took part in the survey.
Their responses include opinions about the current and future business environments, ranging from employment prospects and payment trends to new-product development and capital expenditures.
Czech Republic economists and businessmen are the most confident, with two-fifths (43.3 per cent) optimistic about the economy, compared to just 12.9 per cent in September.