Prime Minister Ivo Sanader informed the government that the Japanese agency raised Croatia's credit rating to Triple B Plus thanks to progress in accession negotiations with the European Union, the reduced budgetary deficit, stable GDP growth, and structural reforms.
Sanader said this was the first time the agency raised Croatia's rating since 1998, and that in the last 12-18 months Croatia's rating was raised by four top world agencies in this field.
"This is a clear message to investors that Croatia is a stable country in the macroeconomic sense, that it is responsible about public finance."
Sanader said this message would echo in business circles and thus help reduce unemployment, open new jobs and intensify business activity.
"This encourages us to continue with the macroeconomic policy, as will be seen in next year's budget," he said.
Croatia will continue to keep all social rights, invest in the infrastructure, meet foreign policy goals to join the EU and NATO, reduce the deficit to 2.8 per cent of GDP next year and lower it to 1.5 per cent in 2009, said Sanader.