State housekeeping in 2016 was good, say analysts

It's possible to evaluate the state's housekeeping as positive in 2016, albeit more detailed data won't be available before the spring, economic analysts told TASR on Tuesday. The Finance Ministry on Monday announced that Slovakia posted a state budget deficit of €980 million at the end of 2016. The ministry noted that this was the lowest deficit to be recorded in the past eight years. The deficit was €990 million (1.23 percent of GDP) lower than the deficit projection of €1.97 billion. "When compared to the 2015 figure, the deficit went down by €952.3 million, or 49.3 percent," stated the ministry. State budget incomes for the whole of last year amounted to €14.276 billion, while expenditures stood at €15.256 billion. "Higher-than-expected tax incomes contributed to this, mainly those coming from companies, a fact that was related to a positive development of the Slovak economy overall. Meanwhile, lower levels of drawing of EU Funds translated into lower state-budget co-funding," said Slovenská sporiteľňa bank analyst Katarina Muchová. Jana Glasová from Poštová banka noted that the GDP growth, falling unemployment and growing salaries also played their role.