Parliament is to debate the budget proposal for 2014-16 within the next few days. The question for the cabinet and its head is whether they will be able to keep the deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 as well as in 2014. Prime Minister Robert Fico guarantees that both deficits will be lower than 3% of GDP.
The Cabinet will attain the guaranteed deficit via higher tax collection as well as by means of savings projected within the public administration reform ESO. Fico rejected the claims from some analysts who believe that the Government has eased up on frugality. “We're counting on a higher economic growth, one of the highest in the eurozone - at the level of 2 percent of GDP in 2014. This too can help us combat unemployment. We'll have several hundreds of millions of euro more from tax collection, mainly from VAT”, added Fico.
Analysts from the Club of Economic Analysts expect that Slovakia will exceed the debt brake defined as 55 percent of GDP in 2013. The likelihood of this happening has increased to 55 percent in November. As far as 2014 and 2015 are concerned, the Club of Economic Analysts expect that Slovakia's deficit will be slightly below 3 percent of GDP, however they claim the government needs to “Pick up the pace on consolidation and sell property worth €1 billion, as planned by the Finance Ministry - or the debt will exceed 57 percent of GDP in 2015”, stated Tatra Banka analyst Juraj Valachy.
