The International Monetary Fund's projection of a 0.5% decline of Croatia's GDP for this year is much better than projections by domestic and foreign analysts, but the result will be better than the IMF's forecast, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, Radimir Cacic, said in Zagreb on Wednesday.
Cacic made the statement when asked by reporters for a comment on the lowered projection of Croatian economic growth, which was announced by the IMF in its regular spring report on Tuesday.
"I expect that we will be better than the IMF's projection," Cacic told reporters at a conference on the Croatian real estate market.
When asked if he would resign if analysts' predictions proved correct, Cacic said that in that case he would have no business in the government. "But that will not happen, as confirmed by the IMF's projections," he added.
The IMF lowered growth projections for the Croatian economy and now expects a decline of 0.5% in 2012, to be followed by a rise of 1% next year, according to its World Economic Outlook which was published on Tuesday.
In its previous report, published in the autumn of 2011, the IMF forecast growth of 1.8% for the Croatian economy for 2012.
