The Slovak 1999 budget deficit up to May 31 was 8.659 billion Slovak crowns ($200 million) compared with 2.406 billion crowns up to May 29 last year, the Finance Ministry said on June 1.
According to official figures, the deficit jumped by 7.246 billion crowns in May alone, from 1.413 billion at the end of April. The main reason behind this sudden rise was unexpectedly low state budget revenues in May (revenues were 7.15 billion crowns, only 4% of the annual target and 5.2 billion lower than in the same month last year). Weak tax collection was the root cause of this fall in budget income - and was one of the main spurs for the VAT rise announced on May 31.
