Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Croatia’s economic growth this year will be lower than earlier forecast by the government, widening the budget deficit, a finance ministry official said.

Growth will probably be less than the earlier estimate of 1.5 percent, widening the budget shortfall to 5 percent of gross domestic product from the 4.3 percent previously expected by the government, said Zdravko Maric, a state secretary at the Finance Ministry, at a conference today in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Southeastern Europe is “very much exposed” to the euro- region’s debt crisis, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jasmina Kuzmanovic in Zagreb at jkuzmanovic@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Agnes Lovasz at alovasz@bloomberg.net