The Economic and Social Council (GSV) of Zagreb concluded after today’s three-hour session that the proposed budget of the City of Zagreb for 2009, amounting to eight billion kuna, is a good basis for further discussion.
The president of the GSV of Zagreb, Vladimir Ferdelj, stated after the session that the first budget proposal was compiled based on economic indicators in July, i.e., before the economic and financial crisis. However, he added, after revision and alignment with new economic data, the budget will be different but not significantly. Slavko Kojić, the head of the City Office for Finance, said that Zagreb had given up some capital investments at the expense of the City budget last year and this year. Regarding the salaries of all budget users, he added, they amount to about 1.8 billion kuna in the budget, and by freezing their growth, approximately eight percent or 100 million kuna could be saved.
This is not a significant saving for the city, so something else needs to be done, which is to reduce capital investments, said Kojić. He added that the City of Zagreb will try to save more money through various rationalizations and other means. The situation is not rosy, but it is not catastrophic, concluded the head of the City Office for Finance. (Hina)
