President signs the State Budget for 2022

President Zuzana Caputova signed the 2022 State Budget Act into law on Wednesday. In the next year, Slovakia is supposed to run a deficit of 4.94 percent of GDP. This year's deficit is forecast to equal about 8 percent of GDP. In the following years, the public finances deficit is prognosed to decrease to 2.7 percent of GDP, with a balanced budget to be achieved in 2024. In order to make that happen, however, consolidation measures worth almost €4 billion are needed, according to the Finance Ministry. The public administration's total projected 2022 income stands at €44.2 billion and expenditures at €49.4 billion. The public administration's multi-year budget expects the gross debt of Slovakia to culminate in 2021-22 at 61.5 percent of GDP, then drop under 59 percent of GDP by 2024. According to the budget bill, the allocation of €4.59 billion is expected under the recovery plan in 2022-24, with the bulk of these resources earmarked next year for the green economy (€454 million), education (€323 million) and health (€218 million).