Zagreb - The Croatian Parliament on Wednesday passed amendments to this year's revised state budget as proposed by the government, which set budget revenue at €26.6 billion and expenditure at €28.1 billion.
The budget revenue has been increased by €1.7 billion from the initial amount and expenditure by 1.4 billion.
The expected budget deficit amounts to €510 million or 0.7% of GDP according to the ESA methodology.
The government estimates that the share of public debt in GDP this year will go down by 5.8 percentage points from last year to 62.6% of GDP.
Inflation is expected to slow down to 6.6% as against 10.8% in 2022.
Real GDP growth is projected at 2.2% and the export of goods is expected to be the main driver of development.
The parliament amended the state budget with the votes of a majority of MPs, with 77 voting for and 24 against.
The Opposition, notably the Bridge party, wanted the amended budget to look different but the government and the parliamentary majority rejected 166 amendments put forward by the Opposition, of which 143 by Bridge.
This prompted Bridge MPs as well as the Social Democrats to walk out of the session.
The government did not accept any of our amendments because it does not think that it would be only fair to give citizens back the surplus it earned due to inflation, but uses the money for propaganda purposes ahead of elections, said Bridge MP Marija Selak Raspudić.
The government and the ruling majority adopted only one amendment, put forward by HDZ MP Goran Ivanović, to give Osijek additional funds to fight mosquitoes.