ZAGREB, March 14, 2020 - The opposition Živi Zid party, prompted by the coronavirus epidemic, on Saturday urged the government to temporarily suspend Croatia's bid to join the euro zone in order to preserve the country's monetary independence.
"Economic activity has already fallen in all sectors, particularly in tourism, and this will affect the entire country which is highly dependent on tourism," the party's leader Ivan Vilibor Sinčić told reporters outside the government offices.
Sinčić said he expected the crisis to develop into a recession in the autumn.
He said that the measures proposed by Finance Minister Zdravko Marić concerning income and profit taxes and contributions would not be enough.
He called for a return to a sovereign monetary policy, suggesting that the central bank "print a certain amount of fresh money" and inject it into the economy. He also called for use of foreign currency reserves and of primary money issue.
Sinčić also stressed the importance of ensuring food sovereignty, proposing setting up a national authority for food supply to plan food supply and production by focusing on domestic producers and family farms.
Tihomir Lukanić said that such authority should comprise the leaders of all parliamentary parties to reach a national consensus on a food policy and the national economy because Croatia is highly exposed to food imports.
Damjan Vučelić warned that Croatia's entry into the ERM II mechanism would tie the hands of the government and the central bank in fighting the coronavirus crisis.
More Živi Zid news can be found in the Politics section.
