"Croatia's PEP, the economic and monetary policy that is pursued by the Croatian government and the central bank, has received very good marks," Suker said after a regular annual meeting on economic policy of finance and economics ministers from EU and candidate countries.
The purpose of such meetings is to prepare candidate countries for participation in fiscal supervision and coordination of the EU economic policy following admission.
Suker also met the EU commissioner for economic and monetary policy, Joaquin Almunia. The Croatian minister said he was glad that Croatia's fiscal forecasts matched those of the European Commission. According to an internal EC document, the PEPs of Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey represent a consistent and partly ambitious framework for economic stabilisation, fiscal policy and structural reforms.
The EC believes that Croatia's projections of economic growth ranging from 4.5% to 5% are moderately optimistic.
The EC also welcomed Croatia's plans to continue reducing its deficit from 2.2% of GDP in 2006 to 1.5% in 2009, and to cut its debt.