BRATISLAVA: The Slovak government approved a fiscal outlook on Wednesday relaxing its deficit target for 2019 but the government still aims to balance the budget by 2020.
The government will target a 0.3 percent gap in 2019, wider than an original aim of 0.1 percent, the government said in the fiscal framework released on its website showed.
Slovakia, a euro zone member, is still aiming to balance the budget in 2020, counting on accelerating growth that will continue to outpace the European Union's monetary union.
This year, the government sees the overall public sector deficit falling to 0.8 percent of gross domestic product from 1.04 percent in 2017.
Slovak growth is seen at 4.2 percent in 2018 before rising to 4.4 percent next year. The euro zone as a whole is expected to grow by 2.3 percent on average this year.
Slovakia is home to three automotive plants and a fourth one is expected to come online in 2018, boosting growth and highlighting the country's position as the world's biggest per-capita car maker.
The country has been one of the better budget performers in the euro zone and its public debt load is expected to fall to 46.5 percent of GDP in 2019 from 49.3 percent seen this year.
The euro zone average stood at 86.7 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2017.
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