The revision was drawn up with a projected GDP decline of two percent and a 2.6% inflation rate.
Presenting the proposed revision, Finance Minister Ivan Suker said that the purpose of the new budget was to preserve jobs as well as to maintain Craotia's credit rating.
All macroeconomic trends in the last two months were taken into account while the revision was being prepared, Suker said pointing out downward trends in the volume of construction work and in industrial production.
Construction work in January 2009 saw a 5.6 percent drop in relation to January 2008, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported recently. This was the first time since November 2007 for the volume of construction work to decrease on the annual level.
Industrial output in Croatia fell 12.4 percent this February in comparison to February 2008, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. February was a fifth consecutive month with a decline in industrial production year-on-year.
Before the start of the parliament's session, the committee on human rights and ethnic minorities' rights refuted the government's proposal for the revised budget.
The reason for not acceding to the proposal is the planned reduction of funds for housing care of returnees and for the reconstruction of war-damaged houses, according to Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS).
Pupovac said the planned revision seemed to be in favour of political parties that had interest in running in the forthcoming elections together.
The committee's head, Furio Radin, said the committee would initiate a motion that the required number of votes for the passage of state budgets should be a majority of all MPs rather than 38 votes.