BRATISLAVA, July 1, (WEBNOVINY) — The state budget deficit of the Slovak Republic was virtually unchanged in June. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the budget deficit was 1.578 billion euros at the end of June, while in May it was 1.567 billion euros. Year-on-year, the deficit improved by 35.3 percent. In the first half of 2010, the budget deficit was 2.439 billion euros. The improved development in previous months results from growing budget revenues that were 12.4 percent higher and reached 5.483 billion euros. Also spending decreased, by 3.5 percent to 7.061 billion euros.
Budget revenues in the first half of 2011 were primarily supported by collected corporate income tax and grants and transfers. Tax revenue as a whole has risen year-on-year by 11.6 percent to 4.113 billion euros, representing 46.8 percent of the annually budgeted amount. The biggest item in collected taxes was the value-added tax, which rose by 5.7 percent to 2.223 billion euros. Corporate income tax revenue increased year-on-year by 57.9 percent to 827.4 million euros and collected excise taxes were higher by 0.7 percent at 950.5 million euros. Revenue from withholding taxes fell slightly by 0.3 percent to 79 million euros. As for collected personal income tax, which is almost entirely transferred to budgets of local and county self-governments, the ministry by the end of June registered negative revenue of 3.1 million euros.
Non-tax revenue of the state budget in the first half of 2011 fell by 3.5 percent to 341.3 million euros. In contrast, grants and transfers recorded growth of 22.7 percent to 1.029 billion euros, which still represented only 28.1 percent of the budgeted sum for the year. Thereof, transfers from European Union budget amounted to 1.017 billion euros on a year-on-year increased by 28.4 percent.
On the side of budget expenditures, as in previous months the government posts a slight annual decrease in current expenditures. In June, they were lower by 2 percent at 6.258 billion euros. Capital expenditure decreased by 13.6 percent over the same period of last year to 802.5 million euros. In May, capital expenditures were still higher than a year ago. However, before the elections in June 2010, the state budget’s capital expenditures reached almost 300 million euros.
According to the state budget law adopted by parliament, the state budget should have EUR 13.148 billion in revenues and EUR 16.958 billion expenses in 2011. The budget deficit is expected to be EUR 3.81 billion. The deficit of the general government as a whole, considering all public institutions, not only the state, should be 4.9 percent of GDP. The government plans to squeeze the deficit bellow 3 percent of GDP in 2013.
SITA
