Slovak parliament approves higher 2021 budget deficit
- The country's public finances have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The extra spending will put the gap at about 12% of expected gross domestic product in 2021.
- Lawmakers approved a 2021 budget in December that envisaged a fiscal gap of 7.4% of GDP, with economic growth seen picking up this year.
PRAGUE: The Slovak parliament voted on Friday to raise budget spending by 3.74 billion euros this year, adding 351 million to the government's proposal to raise expenditure, and putting the planned 2021 deficit at 11.8 billion euros, news agency TASR reported on Friday.
The country's public finances have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The extra spending will put the gap at about 12% of expected gross domestic product in 2021.
Lawmakers approved a 2021 budget in December that envisaged a fiscal gap of 7.4% of GDP, with economic growth seen picking up this year.
Slovakia, like others states in central Europe, has been hit hard by recent waves of the pandemic but has seen infections slow and pressure on hospitals ease, leading to the loosening of epidemic restrictions on public life and business.
The budget ended the January-April period with a 2.63 billion euros gap, a touch higher than the year before.
The full-year 2020 budget ended in a deficit of 7.76 billion euros, more than triple the 2019 gap but below that allowed under the government's crisis plans.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.