Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Tuesday that there were signs that Croatia was on the road to recovery from the crisis, as confirmed by the European Commission.
Kosor made the statement when asked by reporters to comment on the EC's projection of the growth of Croatia's budgetary deficit in 2011 of 6.1 percent.
I believe that our forecasts of budgetary revenue, spending and deficit and our projection of GDP growth of 1.5 percent in 2011, 2 percent in 2012 and 2.5 percent in 2013 will prove true, Kosor said.
I think that economic recovery can be faster if we carry out at least one of the major investment projects planned, Kosor told reporters after a ceremony at which awards were given to the bravest members of the national protection and rescue service DUZS.
Kosor said that she discussed investments with respectable investors during her recent visit to Turkey and that she would do the same during a visit to Egypt on Wednesday and Thursday.
The number of those interested in investment projects is growing and I believe that at the beginning of next year some of them will be implemented, Kosor said.
She recalled the government's decision to freeze budget spending in the next two years at 2010's level.
Commenting on a reporter's remark that the government did not make more radical cuts because of parliamentary elections to be held in 2011, Kosor said that difficult decisions were made, resulting in savings amounting to seven billion kuna. That will have an impact on the 2011 budget and reforms are under way, she said.
It was a difficult decision not to increase spending in the election year, which means that there are no promises, we all just have to work harder, everyone in their own field. One should not ignore the fact that we have managed to bring order to the state-owned companies and introduce a central system of public procurement which will help save around HRK 350 million next year, Kosor said.
Answering a reporter's question, she said that she did not have any new information on the WikiLeaks case.
Whistleblower website WikiLeaks released 250,000 of classified U.S. State Department documents on Sunday, including ones on Croatia, and the five most influential newspapers in the world all carried stories about it - The New York Times (the United States), The Guardian (Great Britain), Le Monde (France), El Pais (Spain) and Der Spiegel (Germany).
