engleski

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Republic of Croatia’s trade sector in 2020

Trade, as an important economic activity, is an intermediary in the added-value chain and it strongly influences production and consumption. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused grave economic consequences worldwide. The Republic of Croatia is not an exception. However, not all Croatian economic sectors have suffered equal damage in 2020 (the pandemic year). On the contrary, many businesses ran smoothly due to their rapid adjustments, such as implementing the “remote work”, changing the product range, introducing innovations, eEconomy, home delivery, etc. The businesses of the primary and secondary economic sectors have felt less impact, while the tertiary sector businesses, i.e. tourism, catering, transport and trade, have suffered the most severe damage. Due to social and physical distancing measures, the tertiary sector of the economy, i.e. the service sector has suffered the most damage. The new data on fiscal and monetary policy measures used in response to the crisis shows that these policy measures were effective in mitigating some of the emerging economic costs. It was also detected that job closures and stay-at-home restrictions had been effective in fighting infections, but they were also associated with significant economic costs. Furthermore, according to the Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics data for 2020, the share of trade in gross added value was 19.6%, and trade participated with 18.6% of the total number of employees. This paper's research focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trade sector in the Republic of Croatia. Consequently, in the spring of 2021, the authors conducted empirical research of business entities from the trade sector on the territory of the Republic of Croatia that were directly experiencing the effects of the pandemic. The subject of the research were business entities in the trade sector, which were asked to state the severity of the effects on the business elements. Respondents were directors, sales directors, finance directors and spokespersons of the trade sector business entities. The results of the survey were processed by a computer program, presented in tables and charts, followed by interpretation of the results. The general conclusion is that there was a significant revenue decline and that the Croatian Government’s measures had strongly supported the trade sector. Those measures were welcomed by the trade sector since without them many business entities would have been faced with survival.

COVID-19 ; trade sector ; economy ; Republic of Croatia

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