ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - The Croatian government does not expect problems in talks with an International Monetary Fund mission as last year saw an increase of Gross Domestic Product, a lower budgetary deficit and a lower inflation rate
in relation to regulations from the stand-by arrangement, Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic told reporters on Tuesday. The IMF mission arrives in Croatia tomorrow to give a final assessment of the stand-by arrangement the government signed last March and which runs until May. Linic conceded the government had not realised its programme entirely, for instance by failing to reduce the total budgetary expenditure for salaries. This, however, does not affect marcoeconomic indicators which Linic believes should not influence the IMF assessment. He said the government was interested in a new stand-by arrangement as an affirmation of undertaken refor
ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - The Croatian government does not expect
problems in talks with an International Monetary Fund mission as
last year saw an increase of Gross Domestic Product, a lower
budgetary deficit and a lower inflation rate in relation to
regulations from the stand-by arrangement, Deputy Prime Minister
Slavko Linic told reporters on Tuesday.
The IMF mission arrives in Croatia tomorrow to give a final
assessment of the stand-by arrangement the government signed last
March and which runs until May.
Linic conceded the government had not realised its programme
entirely, for instance by failing to reduce the total budgetary
expenditure for salaries. This, however, does not affect
marcoeconomic indicators which Linic believes should not influence
the IMF assessment.
He said the government was interested in a new stand-by arrangement
as an affirmation of undertaken reforms. Croatia will no longer
enter an arrangement which regulates the government's programme in
detail but seek that only key control points be determined, he
added.
Linic said the government had still not received an official
request from the World Trade Organisation to take a stand on
Slovenia's complaints over Croatia's decisions on the transit of
oil.
The deputy PM reiterated the urgent need of drafting standards for
entering the Croatian market. The standards should be drawn up by
the Chamber of Commerce and not the government and be equally
applied to imported and exported goods, he said, adding the
objective was the protection of people's health, the environment,
the quality of domestic production, and the combating of grey
economy.
(hina) ha