Finance Ministry: Measures Worth 4.4% of GDP or €7 bn Will Be Needed by 2028

Bratislava, October 10 (TASR) - The deficit in Slovakia's public finances should fall by 2028 to 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), thanks to which public debt is expected to start to decline. Consolidation measures amounting to 4.4 percent of GDP, or €7 billion, are needed over four years to achieve this plan. So far, the government has taken measures for the first year amounting to a net 1.4 percent of GDP. This was stated by the Finance Ministry in Slovakia's National Medium-Term Fiscal-Structural Plan for 2025-2028, which it will submit to a meeting of the Economic and Social Council (the tripartite) on Monday (October 14). On the same day, the social partners are also expected to discuss the draft budget for the next three years, but this document hasn't yet been made public. Next year, the deficit is planned to fall to 4.7 percent of GDP from 5.8 percent this year. The medium-term plan is being prepared by EU countries for the first time this year, in the context of the recent reform of European budgetary rules. These aim to set the pace of consolidation for the coming years so that the debt and the economic deficit are kept below the 60-percent and 3-percent of GDP thresholds, respectively, even ten years beyond the plan horizon. "As a result, Slovakia, as a country facing significant demographic pressure on its population, must achieve a budgetary position close to a balanced economy within a few years," the finance ministry explained in the document. am/mcs