ZAGREB, October 31, 2019 – The Croatian government on Thursday sent to the parliament a draft budget for 2020, envisaging 145.1 billion kuna on the revenue side and 147.3 billion kuna on the expenditure side.
Thus, the government plans 6.7% higher revenues in comparison to the original 2019 budget, that is 5.4% more in comparison to the revised budget which was also tabled to the parliament today.
The expenses in the next year’s budget are higher by five percent, that is by seven billion kuna, in comparison to this year.
As a result, the projected budget gap in 2020 is put at 2.15 billion kuna, accounting for 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product.
However, trends in extra-budgetary users’ accounts and in local authorities’ accounts as well as the consolidation of the necessary adjustments for next year makes way for the projection of a surplus of the consolidated general government at 0.2% of GDP, Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said.
The draft budget has been prepared with the assumption that Croatia’s economy will grow 2.5% in 2020, Marić said.
The revision of the 2019 budget, which was sent today into parliamentary procedure, reads that total revenues would increase by 1.6 billion kuna (1.2%) to 137.7 billion kuna, whereas the expenditure side would be reduced by 1.3 billion from 140.3 billion kuna to 139 billion.
As regards the expenditure side, this reduction is mainly on the back of the savings on the interest rates, as 796.9 million kuna has been saved that way.
The biggest rise in the expenditure side has come from outlays for employees, and 849.6 million rise in the outlays for pensions.
The government also set aside 350 million kuna for the first stage of the construction of the future LNG terminal on the island of Krk.
More budget news can be found in the Politics section.
