SaS: Presented Consolidation Will Destroy Economic Growth in Slovakia

Bratislava, 10 September (TASR) - The package of consolidation measures for next year that Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) presented on Tuesday (9 September) will destroy economic growth in Slovakia, make absolutely everything more expensive and take away the last remnants of what people have, chairman of the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Branislav Groehling stated at a press conference on Wednesday. "What measures are they creating to boost the economy? What they presented yesterday is just more impoverishment and will only cause more redundancies. Economic growth is something that tells them nothing. They aren't familiar with it, they don't know how a country is supposed to produce money. They only know one thing, how to extract that money from people, which they will then use for their own business purposes," stated the leader of the liberals. Groehling criticised a number of upcoming measures. "All workers will have lower salaries because Fico and Kamenicky will decrease them via health-care levies. Sole traders will pay 20-percent higher minimum levies. Towns, municipalities and regions will receive €130 million less. VAT on food with a higher proportion of sugar or salt will increase," he said. According to SaS, there's a need to consolidate on the side of the state, not on the side of ordinary people and companies. The latter, conversely, should be supported, and the opposition party plans to submit such proposals in Parliament. "We'll engage in rightist economic policy so that people, families, workers and companies will have more money. Because it's important that we have strong and rich companies here that will employ people who will have full wallets. This is the foundation of a successful state," added Groehling. At a press conference on Tuesday Kamenicky announced that the package of consolidation measures for next year will include 22 measures totalling €2.7 billion. Almost half of the amount, €1.3 billion, should be obtained by savings on state spending. The result is supposed to be a reduction in the general government deficit and a gradual stabilisation of public debt. am/df