BRATISLAVA, August 10, (WEBNOVINY) — It is high time for a responsible fiscal policy in Slovakia, according to the SaS deputy Jozef Kollar. While in 2008, the gross government debt made up 28.5 percent of Slovakia’s gross domestic product (GDP), this indicator can exceed 42 percent of GDP in 2010 if no savings measures are introduced, he further stated in the parliamentary debate on the government program statement on Tuesday. „Greece started to dip into debt in a similar, or even in a slightly slower pace,“ Kollar warned.
He further advised the former center-left governing coalition that making debts is not social. The government of Robert Fico had been behaving irresponsibly when it left unchanged budgetary expenditures for this year, according to Kollar. “All the neighboring countries cut government spending, and did so quite significantly,” he added.
In his opinion, the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact should be reviewed soon, and it should include the obligation for all countries of the eurozone to observe given criteria and to achieve a balanced state budget in the medium term. „I would tighten it even more for the periods of economic growth, requiring a budget surplus when a country achieves economic growth,” he said. If this is not achieved, then, in Kollar’s opinion, the only real alternative left would be to return to our own currency.
SITA