Ten months into 1998, Slovakia's state budget deficit has topped 9.067 billion Sk ($251 million), up 621 million Sk from the end of September, reported the Finance Ministry on November 2. The revised state budget act for 1998 stipulates that the annual budget deficit cannot exceed 8 billion Sk ($222 million) .
Budget revenues in October were 14.606 billion Sk (8.12% of planned annual revenues) while government spending was 15.227 billion Sk (8.24% of the planned annual figure). Cumulative budget revenues for ten months of 1998 are 81.06% of the 1998 projection. The cumulative budget expenditures over ten months this year equal 83.8% of the 1998 projection.
The state budget in 1998 projects revenues of 179.8 billion Sk ($5 billion), while expenditures are planned at 187.8 billion Sk. The planned deficit should be 8 billion Sk. The state budget draft originally marked expenditures at 184.8 billion Sk and the deficit at 5 billion Sk. However, the Finance Ministry adopted a budgetary measure increasing spending on vital budget elements in the first quarter of this year. After a government bond issue, the Ministry of Finance raised the volume of spending designated for housing construction and the purchase of land under the highway construction regime. The planned budget expenditures, as well as the deficit, ballooned thereafter by 3 billion Sk.
