September 23 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's government has said that it expects the country's budget deficit to be equivalent to 1.6% of GDP next year before falling to 0.7% in 2018.
The state budget revenue for 2017 is forecast at around 8.8 billion euro ($9.9 million), an increase of 5% compared to the estimated figure for 2016, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
In accordance with the mid-term budget frame expenses are set at 9.5 billion euro, or 3.8% higher than this year,
In 2018, the highest expenses in accordance with the mid-term frame are set at 9.6 billion euro, which is 0.5 percent more than estimated in the 2017 budget prposal, while income is planned at 9.3 billion euro, or 4.8% more than predicted for next year.
"The Government will continue its gradual consolidation of public finances in 2017 and 2018, and will also continue to successfully manage the state budget debt. To pay the interest rates, Slovenia will earmark 973 million euro from the state budget in 2017 and 970 million euro in 2018. Compared to the realisation estimated for 2016, the interest rates for 2017 are lower by 8.2%, and they are 0.3% lower than those estimated for 2018," according to the statement.
The government also said that lower interest rates and increased budget revenue will allow it to redirect the saved funds to key priorities and areas such as safety, infrastructure, science, employment and health, which are planned to receive almost 2.2 billion euro next year and 2.3 billion euro in 2018, up from an estimated 1.85 billion euro under this year's budget.
Investments in infrastructure will total 522 million euro in 2017 and 595 million euro in 2018, significantly more than the estimate for the current year, which stands at 441 million euro, the government said.
Investments in road traffic and infrastructure will receive 166 million euro in 2017 and 2018, respectively, while railway traffic and infrastructure works will receive 158 million euro in 2017 and 206 million euro a year later.
Investments in science and employment will receive almost 370 million euro next year, and 393.5 million euro in 2018, an increase over this year's estimate, which stands at around 276.5 million euro. The funds for improving health care quality will increase from an estimated 77.5 million euro this year to 97 million euro next year and almost 103 million euro in 2018.
To bolster security in its broadest sense, the funding for the sector will be increased from this year's estimate of 1.05 billion euro to 1.2 billion euro in 2017 and 2018, the government said.
Slovenia's central bank has said that budget deficit fell to 2.9% in 2015, from 4.9% in the previous year.
($=0.891277 euro)