Croatia's contribution to the European Union budget, costs of bailouts for hospitals and interest rates for borrowing Croatia took in the past, and. on the other hand, absence of the projected economic growth led to the widening of the budget gap in 2013, Finance Minister Boris Lalovac said at the government's meeting in Zagreb on Thursday.
The report on the execution of the 2013 budget show that the budget revenues came to HRK 108.8 billion, which was by one billion kuna fewer than in 2012, and the budget expenditures totalled 125.1 billion kuna, rising by HRK 5.2 billion.
As a result, the budget deficit totalled HRK 16.2 billion, or 6.2 billion higher than in 2012, Lalovac said.
Thus, the budget deficit's share in the country's GDP rose from 3% in 2012 to 4.9% in 2013.
The minister said that on the expenditure side, Croatia managed to reduce outlays on wages by 700 million kuna and material expenses by 230 million. However, he acknowledged that the effects were annulled by an increase of one billion kuna in interest rates on loans taken before.
Croatia also contributed HRK 1.7 billion to the EU as its newcomer, and hospitals were bailed out with the amount of 2.8 billion.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.6)
(Hina)
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