ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - The government is downplaying and not showing concern over the external debt, which amounts to US$18.9 billion and will in the coming years inevitably reflect on citizens' lives, the president of the
Independent Croatian Trade Unions, Kresimir Sever, said on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, Aug 27 (Hina) - The government is downplaying and not
showing concern over the external debt, which amounts to US$18.9
billion and will in the coming years inevitably reflect on
citizens' lives, the president of the Independent Croatian Trade
Unions, Kresimir Sever, said on Wednesday. #L#
He told reporters that in less than four years in office, the
government had doubled the amount of the external debt, which in
1997 stood at $9.7 billion.
The debt has continued to increase this year despite plans to cut it
by $1 billion and in May exceeded former Yugoslavia's external
debt, which in 1990 amounted to $17.7 billion, said Sever, adding
that Croatia was one of the few countries in which the central bank
had lost control over the external debt.
The NHS cautions that Croatia, with a $4,280 debt per capita, is
getting close to the situation Argentina was in before the
financial crash, when the debt per capita amounted to $5,905.
Sever said the NHS wished to alert the government because the
repayment of the debt would drastically burden the state, and
consequently living standards, in the coming years.
Sever added the NHS would today urge the Economic and Social Council
to convene an urgent session on the external debt.
(hina) ha