The budgetary deficit of some 4.8 billion kuna will be covered with privatisation receipts, that is, from the privatisation of the INA oil company and the Croatian Telekom, Suker said at a seminar of the Croatian Economics Society on the country's economic policy in 2006, which is being held in the northern Adriatic resort until Friday.
The minister said that next year's budget included 15 billion kuna worth of investments and five billion kuna worth of subsidies.
Vladimir Gligorov od the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, however, expressed doubt about the ability of the former and incumbent finance ministers to maintain fiscal consolidation.
The 2006 deficit is expected to be significantly lower (3.3 percent of GDP), but it remains to be seen if this is a realistic projection, Gligorov said.
Speaking of other problems, Gligorov said that those included a high deficit, considerably high public spending (around 50 percent of GDP), and high public and foreign debts.
High growth rates would help reduce those problems, but growth rates of 3.5 or 4 percent will not make it possible to solve them, Gligorov said.
He added that the main factor limiting higher growth in Croatia was the current economic policy, its basic problem being the fact that external imbalance and problems with the fiscal sector were being dealt with with restrictive fiscal and monetary measures.
To achieve fiscal consolidation, there should be a consensus on what the state wants to finance, he said.
Gligorov said that it would be better if the state spent more for education and less for pensions, health care, etc.
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