PM Robert Fico and Finance Minister Peter Kažimír (source: SITA)
The total expenditures are predicted to reach €31.8 billion in 2016, with revenues projected at €30.2 billion. As far as 2015 is concerned, total expenditures are expected to be lower than budgeted by €770 million, while revenues are anticipated to be lower by €449.8 million, the TASR newswire quoted the outline.
The ministry also expects the budgetary deficit to shrink to €1.58 billion next year, which is a decrease from the budgeted figure by €320.2 million. Meanwhile, the public debt is projected to fall to 53 percent of GDP in 2015 before dropping further to 49.5 percent of GDP in 2018.
The public administration deficit shall thus represent 1.93 percent of GDP next year, the SITA newswire wrote, with the prospect of decreasing to 0.88 percent of GDP in 2017 and to 0.53 percent of GDP by 2018. This year, the debt should end at 53 percent of GDP. If all goals are met, the debt-to-GDP ratio should fall under 50 percent of GDP in 2018.
The decline in the Slovak deficit and state debt in 2016 will be attributable to the steps of the European Central Bank (ECB) – mainly quantitative easing – as well as due to better tax collection, economic analysts told TASR. The expected economic growth and better macroeconomic prognosis should result in higher tax revenues, several analysts agreed, adding, however, that the governmental goals concerning public deficit could have been even more ambitious. They opined that the Slovak debt is being reduced too slowly.
