Polancec, a senior HDZ official, presented these figures on Monday evening in order, he said, to rebut ill-intended criticism about the current government's failure to draft an economic strategy.
He recalled that the Ivo Sanader cabinet projected that the GDP growth rate would reach four percent this year, and added that he believed that the rate would be even higher.
Polancec expressed satisfaction with a 4.3-percent economic growth rate in 2005.
Commenting on the general government deficit, he said that this deficit had accounted for 4.8 percent in 2004, 4.2 percent in 2005 and that this year it was projected at 3.4 percent. However, Polancec hopes that the general government deficit will fall below three percent this year, which means that Croatia will meet European Union economic criteria.