Zdravko Maric talks about his initial priorities at the Ministry of Finance.
New Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Sunday that his Ministry will within three weeks develop guidelines for economic and fiscal policy, as a framework for drafting the budget which will be sent to the Parliament before the end of March. Spending in the budget should be reduced in comparison with last year, reports 24Sata on January 25, 2016.
In a statement given to reporters in front of the Ministry of Finance, Marić said that he has already met with the new Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković and that the topics of the meeting were the economy, finance issues and budget. “Ministers were given a few days to analyze and get to know budgets of their ministries. In the next three weeks, the Finance Ministry will draw up guidelines for economic and fiscal policies, prepare updated macroeconomic projections and define the so-called limits for each budgetary user”, said Marić.
Asked if the ministers have already received proposals about reductions in their budgets, Marić said he would first wait for their ideas. “The goal is definitely to use this period for drawing up the budget outlines. At this point, I would not like to talk about specific numbers, but certainly our intention is to demonstrate that the budget will be smaller than last year”, said the Finance Minister.
He added that during the meeting they had also discussed the issue of loans in Swiss francs, but that for now he would not go into details. “First of all, both myself and the Prime Minister need some additional facts about this issue, but what is important is that we want to be open not only to the public, but to all stakeholders, starting from the Croatian National Bank and Croatian citizens who are affected by this problem, as well as the banks”, said Marić.
Asked whether there is a plan what to do after Tuesday, 26 January, when the one-year period in which the former government froze the exchange rate of the Swiss franc will expire and there is a risk that for some of the debtors their instalments will again increase, the Finance Minister said that he would discuss the issue after he meets with people involved. “We are going to talk with them in order to get all the facts, and based on that we will see what will happen next”, said Marić. “I think it is best to conduct an additional round of consultations and discussion on the subject and then we shall see”, said the minister.
