"I don’t think we will find any, the budget was executed and planned after taking into account all available information, as well as all the relevant economic forecasts," says Roštan. The public finance goals are not threatened, and the estimated minimum surplus, 50 million by the end of the year, remains achievable. The Ministry of Finance is quite convinced of that, because the first five months’ results suggest a positive picture.
"We anticipate a positive result for the first five months, approximately 63 million euros," says Roštan. The Ministry of Finance still estimates that, after redistributions, an additional 50 million euros will be available for higher social assistance. They have still not decided how this will be done. But there is no room in this year’s budget for the trade unions’ demands for public sector pay rises.
"There is no room for manoeuvre for this. To actually make room for manoeuvre we would need to look at where we could spend less," she explained.
The decision to terminate the execution of the current budget has not yet been made. Such a measure would limit expenditure and is reasonable during the period between two governments, especially because budgetary documents are not being prepared, and would need to be delivered by October. This will be left to the new government. "We will either be able to carry this out this year, or a revision will be needed early in the 2019," she added.
The new government will take over a balanced budget. We will probably not know more about the orientations of the new government until early next year, when the revised budget for 2019 will be on the table.