According to Eurostat and DZS data released on Monday, the general government deficit in Croatia in 2012 was HRK 16.35 billion, or 5% of GDP, while the general government debt was HRK 183.27 billion, or 55.5% of GDP.
The figures show that Croatia will soon enter the EDP, a European Union mechanism conceived to return member countries' budget deficits below three per cent and their public debts below 60% of GDP, as stipulated by the Maastricht criteria.
The EDP defines measures which EU countries facing fiscal deterioration have to undertake in order to balance public finances and prevent fiscal trouble. These countries have six months, or three if the referential values are steeply exceeded, to act on the measures proposed to reduce the deficit and the debt. After this time, the European Commission checks the country's efficiency to see if the EDP can be discontinued or if the measures need to be stepped up.
Croatia could get the EC's opinion and recommendations on the national economic policy in November and December, when the Commission draws up an Alert Mechanism Report on each member country's macroeconomic situation based on which it can decide whether to carry out a more detailed review of the situation in the countries in which the risk of potential macroeconomic imbalances seems high.