Mudrinić: We Are Not Far from an Alarming Situation

It would not be correct to say that the situation is alarming, as that would mean we need extraordinary measures. However, we are not far from that – with these words, Ivica Mudrinić, the president of HUP, opened the presentation of recommendations for exiting the crisis and economic growth. They informed the government of these recommendations even before the summer, but how seriously they were taken at Mark’s Square is shown by the recently published Guidelines for Fiscal Policy, according to which expenditures and the budget deficit are increasing.

The goals and recommendations are not a novelty – there are 13 on the list, including increasing competitiveness, fiscal consolidation, reform of public administration, reducing the tax burden, judicial reform, labor market liberalization, consolidation of public enterprises, strengthening the entrepreneurial climate….

However, each goal is ’emphasized’ with concrete recommendations on how to achieve it, and a complete novelty is HUP-Score – a set of concrete indicators based on which the success of achieving individual goals will be measured.

Velimir Šonje explained how this looks in practice, having developed the Score idea for HUP.

So far, the Score has only been calculated for fiscal consolidation, taking into account all elements and arguments, including the deficit, debt, country risk, revenues, and expenditures. On a scale from 20 (the worst score) to 80 (the best score), the indicator of fiscal consolidation is 34.6, with the deficit, debt, and risk pulling it downwards. The Score was calculated based on the state as of June 30, which means it would be even lower today, especially since the state is again going to the international debt market (for 1-1.5 billion dollars) under conditions where we are among the riskiest countries in Europe, meaning that interest rates cannot be lower than 6 percent!

This is the best proof that the state needs a pre-bankruptcy settlement, asserted entrepreneur Branko Roglić, who calls for radical cuts on the expenditure side of the budget, including local government. Without this, he says, there will be no private investors, and thus no new jobs.

– We need to find someone who is willing to lose the elections – Roglić exclaimed, pointing out where the real problem lies – in the absence of any political courage for the economic cleansing of the country.