"The HNB has fully maintained its autonomy," Boris Vujcic said in Parliament on Friday commenting on claims by SDP MP Mato Crkvenac, who said during a debate on the central bank's report on 2003 that the government made the HNB change the model of calculating the state deficit.
In September, the Sabor received a supplement to the HNB report reading that last year's deficit was 6.3 percent, while the initial report read that the deficit was 5.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
After Crkvenac asserted in Parliament that the government imposed a changed model for the calculation of the deficit, Sime Prtenjaca of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) asked the Deputy Governor to state his opinion on the allegations of pressure.
Vujcic informed MPs that there were two models of calculation of deficit: one based on the cash principle and the other on the budgetary principle.
In the initial report the calculation was based on the cash model, and later it was supplemented with the budgetary principle, Vujcic said refuting allegations that the Ivo Sanader cabinet infringed on the central bank's autonomy.
All the clubs of parliamentary parties endorsed the HNB report and agreed that any change to the exchange rate of the national currency could seriously affect citizens' living standards.