The Eurostat data on Croatia's government budget surplus and debt show that the government is reducing the burden on businesses and households while running a budget surplus, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in his opening remarks at a regular cabinet meeting on Thursday.

He recalled that under the National Reform Programme and the Convergence Programme Croatia was projected to post a budget surplus of HRK 758 million for 2018, which was confirmed by the EU statistical office.

“This means that we are running a budget surplus for the second year in a row, which is not typical for Croatian governments and has not happened basically for 20 years,” the PM said and added: “These are important achievements in the responsible conduct of public finance and fiscal consolidation” which were accompanied by huge tax reductions, including HRK 6.5 billion in tax cuts and a further 2 billion after the removal of various administrative barriers.

“We are reducing the burden on businesses and households while running a budget surplus,” Plenkovic said, recalling that Croatia had a budget deficit of HRK 10.8 billion in 2015.

According to data released by Eurostat on Tuesday, Croatia recorded a government surplus of 0.2% of GDP in 2018 and of 0.8% in 2017. The government debt to GDP ratio was 74.6% in 2018, down from 77.8% in the previous year.

Commenting on the situation in the shipyards, Plenkovic reiterated that a delegation of the China Shipyard Industry Corporation was due to visit Rijeka and Pula next week following political talks at a recent summit of China and 17 central and eastern European countries in Dubrovnik.

In a message to the shipyards’ management, workers and trade unions, he said that the government was working in the shipyards’ interests.

(EUR 1 = HRK 7.42)