ZAGREB, Sept 12 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament concluded this week's session on Friday with a debate on the national debt.
ZAGREB, Sept 12 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament concluded this
week's session on Friday with a debate on the national debt. #L#
Opposition deputies described the level of indebtedness as
catastrophic, while members of the ruling coalition, although
admitting that foreign debt growth was alarming, insisted that it
was possible to service the debt.
Members of the main opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ), said their party had a programme for debt reduction, but
stressed that the precondition for debt settlement was change of
government.
The Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) party and the ruling
coalition blamed the high foreign debt on the HDZ, saying that they
had inherited part of the debt and the economy devastated by war and
failed privatisation from that party.
Responding to criticism by opposition deputies that the cause of
the high debt was the bad economic and fiscal policy of the
government, Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic said that it was the
monetary and economic policy in force until 1999 that halted
development.
Members of the ruling coalition focused on positive indicators,
such as a stable growth of gross domestic product, which the
opposition attributed to increased public consumption.
Opposition MPs warned several times that every Croatian citizen was
nearly US$5,000 in debt, while coalition deputies said it was
pointless to talk about the distribution of the overall foreign
debt per capita.
Tonci Zuvela of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that when the
coalition came to power in 2000 it assumed 10 billion kuna (EUR1.3
billion) of "the HDZ's debt", adding that the government had
settled its liabilities towards the National Health Insurance
Agency (HZZO), the National Agency for the Financial
Rehabilitation of Banks (DAB), the Postal Savings Bank, and so on.
Dorica Nikolic of the Social Liberal Party (HSLS) said that the
government had repaid those debts by borrowing more money.
The parliament was also scheduled to vote on the bill preventing
conflicts of interest, the bill on the maritime domain and
seaports, and the amendments to the law on cattle breeding, but
voting was postponed due to a lack of quorum.
(hina) vm