Finance Minister Eduard Heger (source: TASR)
Slovakia will continue to have deficit budgets in the next three years. The main reason is the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on Slovakia’s economy as well as its main trade partners.
“We are dealing with the biggest crisis,” said Finance Minister Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) after the cabinet passed the draft of the most important law of the year. The budget reflects the truth, salvation and responsibility as it does not hide anything, mitigates the impacts of the coronavirus crisis and is balanced between needed resources and the future need for the consolidation of public finances, he added.
The Slovak cabinet adopted the general government budgets for 2021-2023 and the state budget for 2021 on October 14, just one day before the deadline for sending the document to parliament set by the law on budgetary rules.
Analysts see the plan as realistic and praise the government for creating a €1 billion reserve for tackling the impacts of the coronavirus crisis. On the other hand, they slam the government for the inclusion of some expenditures into the budgets that have no justification during the coronavirus crisis and are calling for more measures consolidating public finances.
“The weakest point of the submitted document is that it does not offer a tangible vision of how to achieve the goal of a deficit below 3 percent of GDP set in the Stability Programme,” noted the Council for Budget Responsibility (RRZ), an independent fiscal body in Slovakia.
