December 30 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's finance ministry expects the consolidated budget deficit to reach 3.3 billion euro ($3.7 billion) this year, equivalent to 6.5% of its projected gross domestic product (GDP), it said on Thursday.
The debt-to-GDP ratio will be 1.4 percentage points lower than the maximum of 7.9% set in the budget, but it will exceed the target of 5.5% due to higher coronavirus-related expenditure, the finance ministry said in a statement.
Public debt will stand at 77.5% of GDP at the end of 2021, one percentage point lower than earlier estimates and 2.3 percentage points lower compared to 2020.
Budget revenue in 2021 is expected to come in at 11 billion euro, 300 million euro above the figure projected in the budget, whereas expenses are forecast to exceed plan by 850 million euro and reach 14.3 billion euro, the finance ministry noted.
Slovenia's consolidated budget turned to a 3.489 billion euro deficit in 2020 from a surplus of 224.8 million euro in the previous year. Consolidated budget revenue fell by an annual 3.6% to 18.531 billion euro last year, with a 4.2% drop in tax revenue to 16.461 billion euro.
($ = 0.88156 euro)