Government Sets Budget Spending Limits for 2008, 2009
The government set limits on budget expenditures for 2008 and 2009 on Thursday, capping spending at EUR 8.572bn for next year and EUR 8.835bn in 2009. These are the frameworks within which budget users must now make their plans, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk told the press.
The projected expenditures for 2008 are EUR 127.6m higher than those set in the adopted budget for the year. As a share of GDP, however, expenditures will be 0.7 percentage points lower at 24.9% of GDP, dropping to 24% of GDP in 2009, according to Bajuk. The minister underlined the ratio between domestic and EU funds. Domestic funds will account for EUR 7.95bn of the budget for next year (21.6% of GDP); EU funds for projects will remain level next year but are expected to increase to EUR 810m in 2009. The Finance Ministry is yet to calculate the budget revenues for the next two years, but they are projected to drop by 2.6%. The final figures for the projected budget deficits are not out yet either, but Bajuk said it would definitely be lower than forecast next year. Compared to the adopted 2008 budget (budgets are typically adopted for two years in advance and later supplemented), the government has proposed more money for science and technology, economy, justice, local government, agriculture, forestry, transport, education and social security. Budget users have until 24 August to adopt their spending plans, while the budget bills will be prepared by the Finance Ministry by September.
If the budget is adopted in the form that the government planned today, public spending will have been reduced by 3% of GDP in the course of this government's term, Bajuk noted.
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