On the official Facebook page of Dragan Primorac, on December 17, a pre-election meeting of HDZ and 35 years of HDZ of the City of Zagreb was broadcast, during which Dragan Primorac, candidate for the president of the Republic of Croatia, stated: “Pensions are growing in Croatia, salaries are growing. And it was difficult for me to see the results of the then prime minister, the outgoing current president, who during the four years of his mandate shows that pensions grew by 12 euros.” (Source: Official Facebook page Dragan Primorac, 1:44:13 minutes)
We investigated the statement and found it to be CORRECT.
According to available data, the average pension in Croatia increased by 10.56 euros during Zoran Milanović’s mandate as Prime Minister (2011-2016). Therefore, Dragan Primorc’s statement that pensions increased by 12 euros during that period is approximately correct, that is, taking into account the intention of the statement, we estimate it to be correct.
When looking at the data on overall net pensions, the data of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO), without international contracts, statistics show that in August 2012 the average net pension amounted to 346.67 euros, and by December 2015 it had grown to 354 .67 euros, which represents an increase of exactly 7. In 2016, the pension amounted to 357.26 euros, which means that pensions in during the term of the then Prime Minister Milanović, the net pension represented 47.1 percent of the net salary in 2013. However, in 2015, the share fell to 46.8 percent, but then there was a change in the pension adjustment formula, so the next year that share was 47.4 percent the data indicate a very modest growth of pensions in that period, which is a reflection of the economic challenges at the time.
