October 27 (SeeNews) - Croatia's economic growth will exceed 8% this year, which is higher than initially planned, finance minister Zdravko Maric said.
“According to our latest estimates, the gross domestic product is to be above 8% which is a very good result. Croatia is to achieve its pre-recession level of GDP in less then two years,” Maric said on Tuesday. Excerpts from his statement were published on the website of state TV broadcaster HRT.
Maric added that he would present more specific macroeconomic forecasts on Thursday when the government is expected to approve a proposal for a budget revision for 2021 and a budget draft for 2022.
The revision aims to provide a further 1.6 billion kuna ($247 million/212 million euro) to the healthcare sector to partly cover outstanding debt to pharmaceutical wholesalers.
The budget deficit will exceed 4%, but public debt as a share of the GDP is to decline this year, Maric added without elaborating.
Croatia's economy contracted by 8.4% last year.
At the beginning of September, Maric said the country's GDP could expand by around 7% this year, more than the originally projected growth rate of 5%.
In late September, the country's central bank lifted to 8.5% its GDP forecast for 2021 from 6.8% projected in July.
Croatia's government said earlier it expects a general government deficit equivalent to 3.8% of the projected GDP in 2021.
(1 euro= 7.512 Croatian kuna)