Deputy PM Grcic: Time needed to meet criteria to enter eurozone

At the moment, Croatia meets three of the five key criteria to enter the eurozone and to meet the remaining two - the share in budget deficit and public debt in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), require time, Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grcic said on Thursday.

"There are five key criteria that need to be met to enter the eurozone. We satisfy about three of the five at the moment. They are a low inflation rate, interest rates that do not deviate too much from the euro average by about two percent if they do at all; and the stability of the exchange rate, for which we can say that Croatia has fulfilled. Two problems still remain and they are the deficit and public debt," Grcic added ahead of a government meeting when asked to comment on President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic's statement that she believes that Croatia should introduce the euro by 2020.

Grcic underscored that it was necessary to wait for the deficit to fall under three percent and public debt to fall under 60% of GDP. This first objective, to lower the deficit to below 3 percent of GDP, according to him, can be expected in 2017.

"The public debt remains, which is currently 85% of GDP, and needs to be stopped from growing even further. Our outlook is that the public debt could grow to 92% over the next three years after which, if we carry out the planned measures, its further growth could be stopped. It then has to be brought to below 60% to fulfill the fifth criterion to enter the eurozone," he said refraining from citing a targeted date.

(Hina) sp

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