ZAGREB, July 8, 2018 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday that the latest report by the rating agency Fitch was "very encouraging" and that it recognised Croatia's efforts.
Fitch Ratings on Friday affirmed Croatia's long-term foreign-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB+' and revised the country's outlook to positive from stable on the grounds of a budget surplus and steady economic growth.
"I find this report to be very encouraging, it is one more very positive achievement on Croatia's part," Plenković told reporters in Sofia, where he was attending a summit of the 16+1 initiative of central and eastern European countries and China.
"This is an act of recognition of everything we have been doing with regard to fiscal consolidation, settlement of the crisis in Agrokor and efforts to prevent its repercussions for the national economy. Now we can continue, as Fitch says, our work on further economic growth and structural reforms on healthy foundations," the prime minister said.
He said that the report indicated that the Croatian government had coped well with the Agrokor crisis. "We have shown that the Croatian economy is resilient, there was no crisis, and state institutions, the government and the parliament have proven their ability to create a framework to solve the problem. Had it not been so, Fitch or any other rating agency would not have upgraded the country's outlook," he stressed.
Asked to comment on the latest CRO Demoskop survey on voter support, which showed that voter support for his HDZ party and the Živi Zid opposition party was growing while support for the opposition Social Democratic Party and MOST was falling, Plenković said that he believed that, after "a certain period of time, it will become evident who in Croatia is serious and works in the public interest and to the country's benefit."
