THE STATE budget finished with a deficit of Sk13.5 billion for the first four months of 2002, Sk1.7 billion less than the month before and Sk1.4 billion less than the same period in 2001. The end year target is Sk36.8 billion, or 3.5 per cent of GDP.
The government has recently been under pressure to make spending cuts to avoid overshooting the target, but has so far agreed only to delay some planned investments.