The cabinet of Iveta Radičová has finished preparing its first state budget bill, the SITA newswire wrote on September 30.
According to the draft published by the Finance Ministry, the deficit for 2011 is projected at €3.823 billion. Revenues are budgeted at €13.092 billion with expenditures of €16.916 billion. Self-governments will get €1.046 billion from state coffers next year and of that amount €649.7 million will go to municipalities and €395.8 million to counties. The state’s budget reserve is set at €23.8 million.
The previous government of Robert Fico projected budget revenues for 2010 at €12.531 billion with expenditures of €16.277 billion. The planned deficit was €3.746 billion. But those projections and the state deficit will amount to €4.7 billion this year according to the Finance Ministry. The ministry expects 2010 budget revenues to reach €11.147 billion with expenditures at €15.847 billion.
The government deficit will improve only slightly from last year's 7.9 percent of GDP to 7.8 percent. The budget draft includes fiscal consolidation measures agreed upon by the four-party governing coalition. The ministry admitted that the draft budget still contains significant uncertainty due to questions about the development of the global economy.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
