March 15 (SeeNews) - The Croatian government unveiled a 1.7 billion euro ($ 1.8 billion) package of measures to support households and the economy amid the ongoing global energy crisis and rising prices.
A total of 1.18 billion euro are envisaged to soften the impact of growing energy prices, 169 million euro are allocated to anti-inflationary measures and 347 million euro are planned for different incentives including support for fishermen, farmers and wood processing companies, according to a presentation of the measures published on Tuesday on the government’s website.
These measures will help to keep unchanged the price of electricity for households, the public institutions and non-profit sector, small businesses and entrepreneurs until the end of September, according to the government. Some 150 million euro will be set aside to help keep unchanged natural gas prices for households, the public institutions and non-profit sector by the end of March 2024 and for companies with average annual consumption of up to 10 GWh.
This is the fourth package of government measures to cushion the effects of soaring energy prices and inflation. Excluding the latest measures, the government has spent since the spring of 2022 as much as 3.6 billion euro on similar measures.
Croatia's consumer prices rose by an annual average of 10.8% last year.
The country’s budget deficit is expected to widen to 2.3% of the gross domestic product this year from 1.4% last year, before it declines to 1.7% in 2024, according to the presentation.
($ = 0.948 euro)