Finance Minister Zdravko Maric told Vecernji List daily of Saturday the government's goal was to keep the wage budget at the same level, while working on efficiency and an adequate employee reward system.

If there is not enough money to neutralise the consequences of the corona crisis, we will revise the budget in the last quarter, Maric said after reports that Croatia’s GDP in Q2 dropped 15.1% on the year and that tourism results were at one-third of last year’s.

Our target will be to keep total expenditures at the 2019 level. Some expenditures will increase, such as pensions, the wage budget and those related to population and welfare policies, but we will cut all other expenditures so that in 2021 total expenditures do not exceed those from 2019, the minister said.

He talked about the autumn and the measures whereby the government will try to mitigate the damage to the economy and help citizens.

Despite recording one of the larger economic downturns in the EU, Maric said that in the years ahead Croatia would have considerable EU funds at its disposal to finance reform projects aimed at economic growth as well as a more efficient and downsized public and state administration.

“Every state budget outlay, even the smallest one, will be subjected to thorough examination because our goal is for total expenditures in 2021 to be at the 2019 level,” he was quoted as saying.