Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said on Wednesday a 2019 draft budget, a technically revised 2018 budget and nine final tax bills would be presented at a cabinet meeting on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, he said projections for 2020 and 2021 would also be presented and that the 2018 budget would be revised given “the somewhat better revenues side and the reallocation on the expenditures side.”

He added that this year’s budget would be affected by enforced guarantees for the ailing Uljanik shipyard.

Finance Minister Zdravko Maric had earlier said that, in the period from 2010 to September 2018, the government had issued 7.5 billion kuna (€1 billion) worth of state guarantees for the Uljanik shipbuilding group, of which 4.29 billion kuna (€578 million) had been activated so far.

Maric said next year’s budget was projected based on a growth rate of 2.9 percent, in line with the forecasts of most domestic and foreign analysts, as well as some of the forecasts made by the ministry itself.

Asked how the state guarantees for Uljanik would affect the result of this year’s budget, he said that without them there would certainly be a surplus, but that “despite the Uljanik situation and the fact that we will have to enter over 3 billion kuna (€403.4 million) into this year’s public debt, the public debt-to-GDP ratio will continue to decrease.”

Maric said the nine tax bills, which passed a first reading in parliament and were now ready for a second reading, would certainly have a positive effect on next year’s budget projections.

(€1 = 7.43 kuna)

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