December 11(SeeNews) - Croatia's central government ran a budget surplus of 2.860 billion kuna ($575.0 million/390.6 million euro) in the first eight months of this year, compared to a 7.0 million kuna deficit in the same period of 2006, Finance Ministry data showed on Tuesday.
Details follow (in millions of kuna):
|
|
Jan-Aug'07 |
Aug'07 |
July'07 |
Jan-Aug'06 |
Jan-Aug as pct of '07 plan
|
| Revenue |
70,603 |
9,705 |
9,334 |
62,049 |
65.07 |
| Expenditure |
67,743 |
9,442 |
8,599 |
62,056 |
62.47 |
| Deficit/surplus |
2,860 |
263 |
735 |
-7.0 |
|
NOTE: Croatia's consolidated budget deficit was a preliminary 7.4 billion kuna in 2006, down from 9.3 billion kuna a year earlier. The consolidated budget deficit last year was estimated at 3.0% of the projected GDP, down from the 4.1% deficit in 2005.
Croatia has cut this year's general budget deficit target to 2.6% of GDP from a previous target of 2.8% to reflect the country's strong economic growth. The consolidated budget deficit is expected to fall to 2.3% of GDP next year, 1.4% in 2009 and 0.5% in 2010.
The Adriatic country hopes to join the EU by the end of the decade and aims to switch to the euro three years after entering the union.
(1 euro = 7.3213 Croatian kuna)