CRO FINANCE MINISTER ON REVISION OF BUDGET

ZAGREB, Nov 17 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament House of Representatives on Friday started a discussion on a government motion on a revision of this year's budget, in line with which the overall expenditures would be increased from 48.3 to 50.6 billion kuna. The state budget is being carried out as planned, however, due to increased transfers, a revision of pension and health care funds is necessary, Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac said introducing the government's motion. Due to a recent decrease of contributions for pension and health insurance by two index points, it is necessary to transfer 1.97 billion kuna to those funds. Budgetary expenditure needs to be increased by 200 million kuna due to the increase of construction works on roads. The increase of budgetary expenditures will amount to 2.36 billion kuna, Crkvenac said. However, this is only a technical reconstruction of the budget, because current expenditures are being increased for only 193 million kuna, or 0.3 percent of the budget. He stressed that lately trends in economy were being changed, and despite the bankruptcies, industrial production is increasing. Owing to this, as well as to good income from tourism, the increase of export, and improvement of trends in trade and construction industry, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year should increase by 3.5 percent, he assessed. The state became solvent, and was able to return 8.5 of 9.5 billion kuna of the inherited debts, which improved the solvency of the entire economy. Insured savings of citizens in banks which went bankrupt will be paid by late this year. This year, the share of the budget in GDP will drop first time in 10 years, Crkvenac said. The House of Representatives continued the discussion on the revision of this year's budget.