"It would be better that they (government) had done nothing, and everything it has done so far is very bad and difficult to rectify," said HDZ parliamentarian and former economy minister Djuro Popijac at a news conference the strongest opposition party held in Zagreb on Saturday.

Popijac said that no one should have illusions that it is easy to improve the situation in seven months, however, it is much easier to make things worse.

Pushing for the acceleration of the restructuring and privatisation, Popijac accused the ruling coalition of being only active in the replacement of senior and medium-size executives in the public companies.

As for the social dialogue, the former economy minister said that none of bills which the incumbent government had sent into parliamentary procedure so far was approved by social partners.

"In 2012 we have suspended social dialogue, and this can be done only by the incapable and incompetent team that is currently running the country," the HDZ MP said.

HDZ parliamentarian and former finance minister Martina Dalic said that social dialogue had been at the lowest level in the last 20 years.

She told the conference that the government's measures had yielded disastrous results such as rising costs, contracting consumption and decreasing export volume, all of which can lead to a downgrade in the country's credit rating this autumn.

She criticised the government for not having measures that may reverse the negative trends in the economy.

The HDZ will elaborate its economic principles by this September, and according to the outlines of that programme, this strongest opposition party will push for the revocation of dividend tax, an increase in nontaxable part of income, and for the lowering of income tax rates.

Small businesses with the revenues up to HRK 2.5 million should be allowed to pay taxes upon collection of their claims, according to the HDZ economic plank.