Suker and Croatian National Bank governor Zeljko Rohatinski discussed Croatia's stand-by arrangement with the IMF with the fund's representatives.
"We can say that 2004 is no longer problematic regardless of the 4.9 per cent deficit," Suker told the Croatian press after meeting the chief of the IMF Mission to Croatia, Dimitri Demekas, and IMF executive director Michael Deppler.
Suker said that although Croatia's fiscal deficit was 4.9 per cent of GDP, and not 4.5 per cent as envisaged by the stand-by arrangement, "outstanding headway has been made" in comparison to the 6.3 per cent deficit in 2003.
The minister said the growth of Croatia's external debt had also been slowed down. He announced that an IMF Mission would come to Croatia in late May to "define criteria for 2005".
Asked if Croatia would have to tighten the belt after talks with the mission, the minister said, "Certain structural reforms do not imply belt-tightening. In principle, structural reforms imply a better spending of taxpayers' money".
Suker said the government would move structural reforms by the end of May, but declined to say what they would consist of. He did point to problems in the health and pension sectors.
The minister said the costs of the health sector accounted for over 8.7 per cent of GDP, whereas in Europe they were below five per cent. "Croatia must carry out the structural reforms not because of the IMF, not because of the European Union, but for the benefit of itself and its citizens and a better future."
According to the stand-by arrangement, Croatia is expected to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.7 per cent.
Central bank governor Rohatinski said Croatia's external debt was not mentioned at today's talks "because the measures taken in this respect so far are yielding results".
"It is to be expected that, with the reduction of the fiscal deficit envisaged this year and its partial financing from privatisation income, the ratio between the external debt and gross domestic product will be reduced from around 80 per cent at the end of 2004 to about 77 per cent at the end of this year," said Rohatinski.
The Central Bureau of Statistics has recently cautioned about the growth of inflation in Croatia which in March was 3.9 per cent, the highest in more than three years. Inflation was two per cent in January and 3.3 per cent in February.
Rohatinski said that consumer prices in this year's first three months were 2.2 per cent higher than at the same time in 2004, which he added was a "high growth".