That's a major success, because earlier projections put economic growth in 2005 at between 3.6 and 3.7 per cent, the prime minister said at the start of a government session.
According to official figures provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, the economic growth rate in the first quarter of 2005 was 1.8 per cent; in the second quarter it was 5.1 per cent and in the third 5.2 per cent.
Finance Minister Ivan Suker also cited positive economic trends, saying that industrial production had increased 5.2 per cent in the last ten months and that in the first three months of this year budget revenue rose 14 per cent over the same period last year.
He noted that the revenue growth was partly due to a government crackdown on the grey economy.
Suker said that the budget deficit was reduced from 3.7 billion kuna in the first three months of 2005 to 1.7 billion kuna in the same period this year.