The federations' representatives learnt about this at today's meeting with the IMF officials in Zagreb, who started their ten-day visit to Croatia on 27 October, the leader of the Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (NHS), Kresimir Sever told Hina on Wednesday evening.
At the meeting in the government's social partnership office, the unionists were told that the IMF delegation would resume talks with the government on the adoption of the budget later this week or at the start of the next, Sever added.
The unions will be acquainted with the draft budget after it is completed, and thus they will have no chance to exert any influence on its contents, he said.
The IMF officials told the unionists that they were only giving advice and recommendations to the Ivo Sanader cabinet over plans for the adoption of next year's budget, but that it was up to the government to define its priorities as there would be not enough money for everybody.
The delegation led by the chief of the IMF mission to Croatia, Dimitri Demekas, informed the unions that the stand-by arrangement between the Fund and Croatia was being implemented as planned.
The budgetary deficit is around the expected 4.5 percent, and a mild deceleration has been noticed in the rise of the external debt.