December 3 (SeeNews) - Croatia's parliament said it adopted on Monday the budget bill for next year envisaging a deficit of 1.7 billion kuna ($260.2 million/229.6 million euro) equivalent to 0.4% of the estimated gross domestic product (GDP).
The budget, built on projections of economic growth of 2.9% in 2019, targets revenues of 136.1 billion kuna and expenses of 140.3 billion kuna, the parliament said in a statement.
The bill was adopted in a 79-to-45 vote with one abstention.
The government expects to slash fiscal deficit to 0.3% of GDP in 2020 and record a surplus of 0.3% of GDP in 2021, prime minister Andrej Plenkovic said last week.
Croatia posted a budget deficit of 1.9 billion kuna in the first six months of 2018, slightly higher than the gap registed in the like period of last year. The central government budget, which includes extra-budgetary funds and local self-government units, was in surplus of 1.6 billion kuna in January-June.
In 2017, Croatia booked a consolidated general government surplus of 2.75 billion kuna, or 0.8% of GDP, after posting deficits for 26 years. The consolidated gross debt at the end of 2017 totalled 283.31 billion kuna, or 78.0% of GDP, while a year ealier it stood at 281.74 billion kuna, or 80.6% of GDP.
(1 euro = 7.404 kuna)