BRATISLAVA, January 19, (WEBNOVINY) — Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS) claims that not the decision to increase the EFSF’s capacity but the implosion of the Slovak government was behind the S&P downgrade of Slovakia’s sovereign debt rating last week. He thus refuted the opinion SaS representatives presented on Wednesday. SaS leader Richard Sulik ascribed the downgrade of Slovakia’s sovereign debt rating to accumulation of new debts as a result of the increased capacity of the EFSF and the unwillingness of some of his former coalition partners to pass austerity measures for 2012. Miklos observed that these statements were strange because it was SaS that toppled the government of Iveta Radicova.
“It was particularly unstable economic situation that caused that we were not able to fulfill our intentions in four areas,” Miklos argues. The government was unable to introduce changes to the first and second pension pillars that, according to Miklos, could have pushed Slovakia among the least risky countries. The collapse of the government thwarted the implementation of the payroll levy reform. Another negative fact was the halt of transformation of hospitals into joint stock companies, with negative impact on budget. Miklos further mentioned higher general government deficit as a consequence of the fall of the government and early elections.
Miklos highlighted that Standard & Poor’s slammed the moves taken by the euro club states to counter the debts crisis as insufficient. “If the SaS party, which toppled the government, interprets the rating cut in the way as it does, than it is just an awkward misleading attempt on its part. They are trying to conceal their own failure,” Miklos countered.
SITA