Kamenicky: Suggestions of Makeshift Budget Are Utter Fallacy

(RTVS, 'Sobotne dialogy', December 7) It's an "utter fallacy" to suggest that Slovakia should have a makeshift budget in 2020, said Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) in a debate with OLaNO MP Eduard Heger on RTVS's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues). "When I was assuming the post of finance minister in May, the central bank (NBS) told me that we'd have a budget deficit of 0.7 percent of GDP this year. I've attempted to deliver a budget at 0.68 percent of GDP. Meanwhile, we've set the budget for next year at 0.49 percent in line with the law on budgetary rules. As far as this budget is concerned, I stand my ground," said Kamenicky. Heger opined that the 2020 budget is probably the worst Slovakia has ever had, due to the fact that it leaves behind an "empty larder", and also because it's based on faulty premises both concerning expected incomes and expenditures. bub