The increase in the public-finance debt should be halted after 2015 at just below 57 percent of GDP. This limit is set by a constitutional law, if exceeded the Government would be obliged to submit a balanced state budget. On Wednesday the Government approved the Stability Programme for 2013-16.
Its goal is to stop debt growth by getting the deficit down even faster than is required by the European Union. The Stability Programme is to be submitted to the European Commission by the end of April. According to EU rules, the nominal deficit of EU-member state budgets should be lower than 3 percent of GDP, with the structural deficit going down by 0.5 percent of GDP. The reductions should result in the public finance deficit falling from the 2.9 percent expected this year and 2.6 percent in 2014, to 2 percent in 2015 and 1.3 percent in 2016.
