Events for May
M T W T F S S
30 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31 1 2 3
Add your event FREE

Today

Videos

Polls

  • What do you expect from Croatia at the European Football Championship?

  • show result

    all polls

25. 01. 12. - 13:00

25. 01. 12. - 13:00

Credit agencies see PM Milanovic as committed to fiscal consolidation

Croatian Times

Some credit rating agencies have welcomed the new government’s decision to increase VAT from 23 to 25 per cent as a sign of a bigger commitment to fiscal consolidation.

French agency Fitch praised the new Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's decision, while other agencies await to see the guidelines for this and next year expected to be released on Thursday and which will indicate future directions.

Royal Bank of Scotland analyst Timothy Ash told Reuters that Croatia could benefit from a "precautionary" deal with IMF.

"Investors are likely to be ready to buy Croatia's debt this year as long as they see some form of more comprehensive reform program from the government - perhaps helped by an IMF program," Ash told Reuters.

Like other European states, Croatia also faces big pressure to cut down on public spending – the former government managed only to slow down the growth of budgetary expenditure to 120 billion kunas (15.8 billion Euros) in 2009, 121 billion (15.97 billion Euros) in 2010 and 122 (16.1 billion Euros) in 2011.

The tax revenues, however, dropped in those years from 110 (14.5 billion) to 107 billion kunas (14.1 billion Euros), so the state went after loans to make up for the difference.

Unnamed sources in the current government say that PM Milanovic’s budget will be the first to bring a turnouround in the policy of increasing expenditures. They expect
the budget to be capped at 118 billion kunas (15.58 billion Euros), daily Vecernji List writes.

Tag cloud Euros  European  Reuters  consolidation  budgetary  reform  kunas  growth  agencies  Milanovic  perhaps  government  fiscal  Vecernji  Croatia  committed  expenditure  billion  states  pressure

Latest News

 

Minister to investigate 'torturing' Croatian exam
Jovanovic fielded many abusive calls from students and parents claiming that the Croatian exam was unfair and torturing.

U.S give Croatians chance to train at prestigious universities
Croatia is once again participating in the prestigious academic mobility program called the Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP), funded by the U.S. government. The program provides teachers at Croatian higher education institutions the possibility of obtaining scholarships for training at top American universities.

Americans to invest 3 Million Euros in Croatian portal
American private investment firm, iEurope Capital, is to invest 3 million Euros in Croatian group buying portal KupiMe.hr. KupiMe will use the money gained through its strategic partnership with the Americans to grow its business in Southeast Europe and to purchase similar portals, trebamito.hr, bigsale.hr and trebamito.rs, reports website poslovni.hr.

International Rural Tourism Congress begins in Osijek
The 3rd International Rural Tourism Congress "Rural tourism

Croatian Wines win Awards in London
Croatian wines have won awards at this year's Decanter World Wine Awards which were announced at the London International Wine Fair on Tuesday, reported daily newspaper Glas Istre.

Strongest Croatian line-up yet at ATP event in Umag
Croatia's strongest representation yet will appear at this year's ATP Vegeta Croatia Open Tennis tournament which will be held in the Adriatic town of Umag from 5-15 June.

Croatia again top of Europe's water quality list
Swimming water in Croatia is at the top of the European list when it comes to quality. Croatian beaches, rivers and lakes, together with Cyprus, Malta and Greece is of excellent quality at more than 90 per cent of its sites, at the other end of the scale, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia, Luxembourg and Belgium have a relatively low proportion of sites with quality swimming water, according to the latest report report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) announced on Wednesday in Brussels.

Best Croatian home garden on show at Floraart 2012
The 47th International Flower and Garden Show - "Floraart", is set to be held at Zagreb's Bundek lake from 30 May - 3 June, reports portal politkaplus.

Banks post huge profits in Croatia again
Banks in Croatia have once again posted huge profits. In the first three months of 2012, banks in Croatia record profits before tax of 1.29 billion kuna (170 million Euros), according to interim unaudited data for 32 banks in the country, it was announced on Wednesday by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

Finance Ministry gets tough on evasive companies
At the request of creditors, Croatia's leading Financial Agency Fina has blocked around 38,000 companies and 26,000 tradesmen, because of more than 42 million kuna (5,3 million Euros) of outstanding liabilities, reports daily newspaper Vecernji list.

 

The most popular stories –
last 7 days

Friends and Partners