Prime Minister says IMF forecast excellent, confirms govt's plan

Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said on Tuesday that the International Monetary Fund's 2016 growth forecast for Croatia was an excellent result and yet another confirmation of his government's plan.

"This is an excellent result. I would say that this is yet another confirmation of our plan. We set growth at 2% of GDP and we have already reached 1.9%. I am confident that this year will be good, not only according to the GDP growth," Oreskovic said, adding that new investments had been launched, the absorption of European funds increased and that the government planned another move regarding the debt and its reduction by the end of H1.

After we do that, I am confident that we will send out a positive image to the European Commission," the prime minister said.

He underscored that he was confident that the IMF forecast would result in positive assessments of rating agencies by mid summer.

"Somewhere in July we'll see the reaction of the rating agencies... I believe their assessments will be good as well," Oreskovic said.

The IMF has nearly doubled its 2016 growth forecast for Croatia and the growth is projected to accelerate further in 2017, according to the latest IMF World Economic Outlook.

This year Croatia's economy is forecast to grow 1.9 percent, whereas last October the IMF forecast a growth of 1%. The IMF has also doubled the forecast of Croatia's growth for 2015 to 1.6% from the previously forecast 0.8%. As for 2017, the IMF projects that Croatia's economy will growth 2.1%.

(Text: Hina)

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