Rohatinski graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics in 1974, where he also received his doctorate in 1988 with a thesis titled Vremenska dimenzija ekonomske aktivnosti društva (lit.
In 1990 he was appointed Head of the Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy Division at the Zagreb Institute of Economics, which he managed until 1998, when he became Chief Economist at Privredna banka Zagreb, where he worked until April 2000, when he took up the post of Director for Macroeconomic Analyses at Agrokor.
Rohatinski was a Fulbright Program fellow,[1] and he authored a number of research papers, a book edition of his thesis titled Vremenska dimenzija ekonomske aktivnosti društva, and he also co-authored the book A Road to Low Inflation (published in English by the Croatian Government in 1995, ISBN 953-6430-00-2).
In December 2008, Jutarnji list, a national Croatian daily newspaper, selected Rohatinski as Person of the Year, crediting him with the stability of Croatia's financial system during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
He was a fan of Alan Ford comics and the Rolling Stones, and his favorite movie was Deer Hunter.