ZAGREB, CROATIA - “Citizens owe 150 billion kuna. If the interest rates rise only one percent it means that they will have to earn an extra 1.5 billion kuna this year. That is impossible” said dr. Ljubo Jurcic at a press conference today. The press conference was held in the name of the SDP (Social Democratic Party) club, at which Jurcic and dr. Branko Grcic proposed an anti-recession plan for surviving the crisis that we have entered.

The SDP members propose that citizens be helped so that banks implement a moratorium on paying back loans, and that interest paid on housing loans be an additional tax break over 12,000 kuna.

“It is known that some banks are already considering delaying the payment of loans. That is more profitable than selling the assets of the person in debt, which they have nobody to sell to now on the market” said Jurcic.

“The two largest fears of citizens in Croatia today are fear of losing their job, and of rising interest rates. According to optimistic prognoses, this year twenty or so thousand people will be left without work, not by their fault but the recession’s, so we propose the increase and extension of payments for them” said Grcic.

According to SDP’s proposal, unemployed people with 3 months to 3 years of work experience would have the right to 180 instead of the current 90 days of payments, those with up to 10 years of work experience would have one year. A 70% payment would be paid for at least 6 months.

With these, they propose measures for the stimulation of industrial manufacturing, for example, increasing the base capital of HBOR by 7 billion kuna.

Where will the money for that come? Jurcic answers that it must be foreseen in the budget rebalance, which will now obviously need to occur.