Finance Minister Martina Dalic said on Thursday that Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Zoran Milanovic did not understand public finance management and that his statements about it were unreliable.
"I'm very sorry that Mr Milanovic doesn't understand the methodology and model of managing public finance," Dalic told the press.
She said that borrowing primarily depended on the amount of due liabilities. "This year, among other things, we had to and have to service liabilities incurred during the SDP-led government."
The need to borrow is primarily reduced and limited by cutting spending, which is why the parliamentary majority, at the government's proposal, adopted a decision to freeze spending this year and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, in order to reduce spending, Dalic said, adding that the SDP had voted against all those decisions.
Milanovic said the government's decision to issue new bonds, increasing Croatia's debt by about HRK 5.8 billion, constituted borrowing to cover current expenses and that this practice, which had been in use for years, should stop, as Croatia could no longer endure it.
