The Beast
Rating? No grazie!
reuters, 8 jun
hmmm
non è proprio bright la situation, lì come altrove
ZAGREB, June 8 (Reuters) - Croatia may once again tap international financial markets in the autumn to cover its budget gap as well as cutting spending if the economic downturn continues, Finance Minister Ivan Suker said on Monday.
Suker said Croatia will probably have to cut budget spending one more time this year, as it did in April, if revenues from summer tourism underperform and the economic contraction deepens more than forecast.
'It is likely that we will have to cut (budgetary) expenditures more and it means that one option is to tap international financial markets once again,' Suker said in a live interview for state radio.
He had been asked how the government planned to cover its budget deficit, particularly given the risk of the economic downturn persisting.
Riding a wave of renewed investor appetite for sovereign debt, Croatia issued a Eurobond worth 750 million euros ($1.05 billion) at the end of May. It will be used to refinance maturing foreign and local debt in June and July and to cover a part of the budget gap.
The revised budget foresees a gap of 5.5 billion kuna ($1.05 billion) based on an economic contraction of two percent. Some 250 million euros of the borrowed money will be used to cover the budget deficit, while a gap of almost 4 billion kuna has yet to be covered.
'We are waiting for September, when we will probably rebalance the budget. On the basis of that, we'll see what the deficit will be. The state's financing needs and tapping the international markets will depend on that,' Suker said.
He said a big burden for the budget were subsidies to the shipbuilding industry, which has yet to undergo restructuring required by the European Commission.
Zagreb, which hopes to become a European Union member in 2011 or 2012, has been in talks with the Commission for more than a year on the issue.
'Loans and state guarantees that have been provided to shipyards are a constant threat to the budget,' Suker said.
Most local analysts, including the central bank, warn that this year's economic downturn may be double what the government had projected. They said slow restructuring of shipyards might put additional strains on fragile public finances.
hmmm
non è proprio bright la situation, lì come altrove
ZAGREB, June 8 (Reuters) - Croatia may once again tap international financial markets in the autumn to cover its budget gap as well as cutting spending if the economic downturn continues, Finance Minister Ivan Suker said on Monday.
Suker said Croatia will probably have to cut budget spending one more time this year, as it did in April, if revenues from summer tourism underperform and the economic contraction deepens more than forecast.
'It is likely that we will have to cut (budgetary) expenditures more and it means that one option is to tap international financial markets once again,' Suker said in a live interview for state radio.
He had been asked how the government planned to cover its budget deficit, particularly given the risk of the economic downturn persisting.
Riding a wave of renewed investor appetite for sovereign debt, Croatia issued a Eurobond worth 750 million euros ($1.05 billion) at the end of May. It will be used to refinance maturing foreign and local debt in June and July and to cover a part of the budget gap.
The revised budget foresees a gap of 5.5 billion kuna ($1.05 billion) based on an economic contraction of two percent. Some 250 million euros of the borrowed money will be used to cover the budget deficit, while a gap of almost 4 billion kuna has yet to be covered.
'We are waiting for September, when we will probably rebalance the budget. On the basis of that, we'll see what the deficit will be. The state's financing needs and tapping the international markets will depend on that,' Suker said.
He said a big burden for the budget were subsidies to the shipbuilding industry, which has yet to undergo restructuring required by the European Commission.
Zagreb, which hopes to become a European Union member in 2011 or 2012, has been in talks with the Commission for more than a year on the issue.
'Loans and state guarantees that have been provided to shipyards are a constant threat to the budget,' Suker said.
Most local analysts, including the central bank, warn that this year's economic downturn may be double what the government had projected. They said slow restructuring of shipyards might put additional strains on fragile public finances.