The budget for next year will be an incentive for demographic renewal and revitalization

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has said that economic and fiscal guidelines, which the government will adopt at its session on Thursday, will be a roadmap for the preparation of the 2019 budget, adding that the guidelines projected a 2.7% growth in 2019 and a 2.5% growth in 2020.

At the start of the government session on Thursday, Plenkovic recalled a legal obligation in the process of budgetary planning under which economic and fiscal guidelines for the next three-year period are to be adopted at the end of July or in early August. He added they would be the roadmap for the process of drawing up the budget.

"This is the continuation of positive economic trends in the medium term. We are continuing fiscal consolidation, sound economic growth and public debt reduction. We want the kind of economic growth where all budgetary beneficiaries behave responsibly," the prime minister said at the start of the government session.

Plenkovic said that following this year's economic growth of 2.8%, the government expected the economy to grow 2.7% in 2019 and 2.5% in 2020.

"We want the budget, which will be adopted by the end of the year, to be able to give impetus to resolving the demographic revival issue, encourage demographic revitalisation and enable the continuation of the education reform. The education reform is a prerequisite for all forms of progress and competitiveness of Croatian workers on the labour market," Plenkovic said.

He said the most important thing regarding fiscal and macroeconomic trends was to maintain sustainable growth and continue accelerating trends in cutting the public debt which indicate that Croatia could be close to meeting the Maastricht criteria in 2021.

Text: Hina

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