Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Marić has said his country is on track to meet its commitments under the mechanism for the country’s adoption of the Euro currency. “We are not running late. Quite the contrary, we are a bit faster,” said Marić after a meeting of the national council for the adoption of the euro.

Marić said that it was very important for Croatia to meet the convergence criteria and that Croatia was meeting its commitments under the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) according to plan.

At its meeting on Thursday the government was expected to adopt budget limits for the next three years, in line with its convergence programme, the finance minister said, adding that the programme had been favourably assessed by the European Commission.

“We will be in full compliance with the criteria and will meet everything that is expected of us, not just for the sake of adopting the euro but also because we have learned as a country that it is very important to have sustainable public finance,” he said.

In April, the government adopted its eighth convergence programme, for the 2022-2024 period, projecting a growth rate of 5.2% in 2021, of 6.6% in 2022 and of 4.1% in 2023. The general government deficit target for this year is 3.8%, while the deficit for 2022 is projected within the Maastricht criteria at 2.6% of GDP.

(Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

Source: Euractiv.com