Slovakia will use the proceeds from privatisation to pay its cash contribution to the newly-designed European Stabilisation Mechanism (ESM), which in 2013 is set to replace the current European Financial Stabilisation Fund (EFSF), Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš told the parliamentary finance committee on Thursday, April 14.
According to the recently agreed scheme, Slovakia is expected to contribute €659 million in cash towards the ESM's share capital. Mikloš said that there should be no problem obtaining this amount from privatisation, and that the coalition is thus likely to approve this use of the money. "This is the intention of the Finance Ministry ... since there is an agreement on privatisation, and roughly also on its timeframe, I suppose there should be no problem with this," Mikloš said, as reported by the TASR newswire, adding that such a resolution will affect neither the country's debt nor its public finance deficit.
According to Mikloš, the state's assets will actually change only formally, turning from cash into a capital share in the ESM. "It would affect our debt if we had to borrow to buy the shares. But when we use money from privatisation, it will have no effect on the debt or the deficit," the minister explained.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
15. Apr 2011 at 10:00
