Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, who is on an official visit to the United States, commented for N1 the Friday report on the 2.7 billion kuna (€364 million) general government budget surplus, which is the very first surplus Croatia has posted since records began in 2002.
In addition, the debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 78 percent, the lowest it has been since 2012, according to data released by the state statistics bureau.
“The statistics bureau only confirmed what we have announced earlier. Croatia has recorded a budget surplus, this is the first time we have spent less than what we have earned, and this led to the reduction of public debt by 3 percentage points compared to last year,” Maric told N1.
“In 2016 we had the lowest budget deficit so far, and back then we said we were on the right track, but it was still a deficit of about 3 billion kuna (€405 million). There were several key elements that contributed to this, some credit certainly goes to the economy, but also, economic growth was spurred by the tax reform,” Maric told N1.
“There were three key elements (that led to this): economic growth, budget revenues, and (tighter) control of expenditures. Croatia also benefited from reduced interest rates, and that’s something I am especially pleased about,” Maric said, and added that the trend of declining interest rates is bound to continue.
(€1 = 7.41 kuna)
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