Slovenia to post 2.4 bln euro budget gap in Q4 - Fiscal Council

"The Fiscal Council received draft budget documents for the next two years and it appears that the deficit in the fourth quarter should amount to as much as 2.4 billion euro. This would be 1 billion euro more than in the whole of last year and about three times more than in the fourth quarter of 2020, during the pandemic," the Fiscal Council said in a statement on Thursday.

Slovenia's consolidated budget was in deficit of 765 million euro in the first nine months of 2023, the finance ministry said on Thursday. Budget revenues rose by 45 million euro on the year in the review period, to 9.3 billion euro, while expenditure grew 490 million euro to 10.1 billion euro.

The budget deficit data for the first nine months of 2023 confirms the Fiscal Council's assessment of the continuation of unrealistic budget planning, which may represent an inadequate basis for the high level of expenditures forecast for the following years and could cause irrational use of public funds, said the public body which is accountable to Slovenia's parliament. It has three members and its mission is to assess the compliance of the government's fiscal policy with the fiscal rules and EU regulations.

Last month, Slovenia's government increased projected budget deficit for 2024 to 3.3% of the expected gross domestic product (GDP) from the originally planned 2.3%. The government expects the budget deficit for 2024 to reach 2.2 billion euro ($2.3 billion), based on revenues of 14 billion euro and expenditure of 16.2 billion euro, whereas in 2025 the budget deficit is estimated at 1.26 billion euro, or 1.8% of GDP.

Slovenia closed 2022 with a consolidated budget deficit of 1.4 billion euro, down from a 3.1 billion euro deficit in the previous year.

($ = 0.94779 euro)