Croatia is sinking deeper by the day and the government's information about decline in unemployment and illiquidity, also carried by some media, is blatantly untrue, the president of the opposition People's Party (HNS), Radimir Cacic, told the press on Tuesday.
He said seasonally adjusted data on unemployment showed that it was growing, rather than falling, and that he doubted that Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's announcement of 150,000 new jobs by the end of the year would come true.
Cacic said illiquidity had not declined but doubled since Kosor became PM in mid-2009, adding that negative financial indicators continued to grow.
He said the budget deficit in the first three months of 2011 was HRK 5.5 billion and that of the HRK 6.3 billion the central bank injected into the banking system, HRK 5.1 billion ended up in a "new state debt", while only HRK 1.2 billion went into the economy. "That was an intervention to save the state and further destroy the economy."
Cacic said the government should immediately relieve the manufacturing industry of 15-20 per cent of taxes, and that the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development should increase lending to the real sector and tourism.
He said the lack of competition in the real sector and the constant price growth was untenable for the economy.
"In the backbone of the real sector - industry, tourism, the economy - there are 33,000 less employees, while in public administration, education and health care 3,700 new people have been employed."
Responding to a question from the press, Cacic said he had not received any information from Hungary about a car crash he had caused there, killing two people.
