Incentives for housing savings deposits in 2015 would amount to 4.9% of the savings made

Finance Minister Boris Lalovac said that the yield was still attractive considering that the yield from government bonds was around 4%.

The government also gave its consent to take over as public debt a 1.77 billion kuna debt of the HZ Infrastruktura railway maintenance company, taken as a loan to finance the modernisation of the railway infrastructure, thus increasing the public property equity in HZ Infrastruktura to HRK 1.9 billion.

The government also adopted two decisions to issue guarantees to the Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) and/or other commercial banks in the country or abroad for the financing of work on new ships at the Brodosplit shipyard.

The guarantees, intended for several new vessels, amount to EUR 12.7 million and EUR 23.3 million. The guarantees are issued for the purpose of insuring advance payments by the parties commissioning new vessels.

The government also discussed a programme for the implementation of the national strategy for the fight against poverty and social exclusion for the 2014-2016 period.

Social Policy and Youth Minister Milanka Opacic said the government believed the best way to fight poverty was through employment. She said that more than 33,000 jobs had been saved by pre-bankruptcy settlement proceedings and that 60% of young people covered by professional training programmes had found employment.

She recalled that the welfare benefit for singles had been increased by HRK 200 and announced that next year a law on personal bankruptcy would go into force, adding that a decision on the manner and extent of writing off debts of the most destitute citizens would be made by mid-January.

(Hina) rml