Asked by reporters about a polemic between Finance Minister Slavko Linic, who said he was disappointed by entrepreneurs, and Croatian Employers' Association head Ivica Mudrinic, who said Linic was not encouraging an entrepreneurial climate with such investments, Josipovic said the situation was complex.
There are problems on the state's part, but there is also a mentality of relying on the state too much and expecting too much from it, the president said, adding that this type of economic weakness did not exempt the state from doing all in its power to improve the investment climate and management conditions as much as possible.
Asked about the Fitch agency' downgrade of Croatia's credit rating from stable to negative and if Croatia needed assistance from the International Monetary Fund, Josipovic said he hoped that such negative trends would not continue.
Enough has been done that will perhaps improve the situation next year, from talks on investments to new laws that encourage investments, he said, adding that with regard to the IMF, it was a matter of evaluating what was better for Croatia.
Commenting on the state budget, Josipovic said there was only so much money in the budget and how it was allocated depended on requirements and the amount of money available to the state.
"From the global aspect of running the policy, it's important that (the budget) is balanced and that there is also some room for the welfare policy."
The president would not comment on the government's work in light of more than 350,000 jobless people, saying he did not rate the government and its ministers, but added that it was necessary to change trends and that the number of the unemployed was the result of general economic problems.
Asked if he met with representatives of the Syrian National Council who recently visited Croatia, Josipovic said he did not but that his advisors did and that they talked about the situation in Syria in general.