Kamenicky: Necessary Consolidation Socially Balanced, It Won't Stifle Economy

Bratislava, November 28 (TASR) - The implementation of the necessary consolidation of public finances with the aim of stabilising the debt by the end of the electoral period is the main characteristic of the government's draft budget for 2025-2027, Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) said in a House session dealing with the budget on Thursday. "As a result of high deficits and debts of previous governments, the incumbent government is implementing its second major consolidation, whose measures have been designed to be as socially balanced as possible and not to stifle economic growth," Kamenicky stressed. According to him, the draft budget was prepared taking into account new EU fiscal rules, which require setting limits on public spending for next years. The minister noted that in line with thew new rules, the government prepared the National Medium-Term Fiscal Structural Plan of the Slovak Republic. It contains a binding trajectory of net expenditure growth for the next four years, so that the deficit falls to 3 percent of GDP by the end of the electoral period and public debt is stabilised. "I want to point out that we could have chosen a seven-year plan. We voluntarily chose a four-year plan in order to meet the plan that in 2027 we will reverse the debt trend that will persist until 2027 because of the huge deficit that we inherited," Kamenicky claimed. In order to fulfil this plan, the public deficit will gradually decline from 4.7 percent of GDP in 2025 to 3.7 percent of GDP in 2026 and 3 percent of GDP in 2027. "This strategy, according to the latest projections, will lead to a halt in the growth of the debt at the end of the term in 2027," the minister said. Kamenicky at the same time remarked that this week the European Commission (EC) assessed the draft budget. "Slovakia was among the seven best countries [in the EU] in terms of budgeting, this is how the EC evaluated it. The Commission also positively judged Slovakia's medium-term fiscal structural plan," Kamenicky added. zel