Croatia runs slight budget surplus in 2018: PM

ZAGREB: Croatia had a budget surplus for the second year in a row in 2018 according to preliminary data, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said late on Wednesday.

"According to our own data and the initial data we have from the Eurostat, our general budget will have surplus in 2018 amounting to 756 million kuna ($115 million)," Plenkovic said in an interview for state television.

Originally, the government planned a small general budget deficit in 2018 of 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The surplus would amount to some 0.2 percent of GDP.

In 2017 Croatia ran a budget surplus of 2.9 billion kuna.

"Had we not had to pay 2.5 billion kuna on the basis of the state guarantees, our surplus in 2018 would have been higher than in 2017," Plenkovic said.

Croatia's biggest shipbuilder Uljanik group is struggling to avoid bankruptcy and the government had to pay for the state guarantees extended in the previous years to help its business stay afloat.

Final budgetary figures for 2018 are expected to be released later this month.

"We are continuing with a reduction of our public debt share in GDP. Our goal is to reduce it to 62 percent of GDP in 2022 which is one of our goals in a drive to adopt the euro," Plenkovic said.

At the moment Croatia's public debt is at 74.6 percent of GDP and has been constantly falling in the last three years from the level of around 85 percent.

Croatia is eyeing euro adoption in the next four to five years.