Slovakia's public debt in 2009 stood at €22.58 billion, or 35.7 percent of GDP, according to the public administration closing account that was approved by the government on Wednesday, June 23. Debt as a proportion of GDP went up by 8.1 percentage points year-on-year, stated a document drafted by the Finance Ministry.
According to the ministry, the figures were due to the economic crisis, with debt rising by 21.5 percent and the economy contracting by 4.7 percent in 2009. "The significant rise in the Maastricht debt [the debt-to-GDP ratio] is due to the economic crisis that in 2009 resulted in the need to fund the deficit and public administration debt with a significantly larger amount of funds from other sources than was previously foreseen in the budget," said the ministry, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Eurostat announced in April that Slovakia's public-finance deficit for 2009 amounted to 6.77 percent of GDP, up from the ministry's plan of 6.3 percent. "A more substantial impact of the economic crisis than was expected in budget adjustments was the decisive factor in exceeding the projected budget deficit," said the ministry.
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.
