ZAGREB, March 6, 2018 – Finance Minister Zdravko Marić has said that statistics about budget revenues and expenditures for the first two months of 2018 did not hint at any further deceleration of economic growth, and added that things “are unfolding in line with the initial forecasts of GDP of 2.9%.”
“We can stick to the original plan of a 2.9% growth in the economy in this year,” Marić said on Tuesday, responding to questions from the press after Croatia and the European Investment Bank signed an agreement on consulting services.
In Q4 2017, Croatia’s economy grew at a lower-than-expected rate of 2%, in comparison to the corresponding period of 2016, which was the slowest growth rate since Q2 2015 and a result of a mild slowing down of personal consumption growth and slower-than-expected investment growth.
Asked by the press to comment on criticism levelled by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović about the decelerating growth rate in Q4 2017, the finance minister said that the budgetary state of affairs could not be viable without a viable economy. “Our ultimate goal is to have economic growth sustainable, coupled by sustainable employment and everything related to that. State finances, demography, the pension insurance system and the healthcare system. All that depends on economic performance,” Marić said.
He called for strengthening domestic production and the domestic manufacturing sector so as to be as less dependent on imports as possible, and also pushed for higher exports in the years to come.
Marić said that the current growth rate was around 3% and that it was on more viable and sound foundations than the country’s pre-recession growth before 2008.
