Slovakia's state budget deficit widened by 14% y/y to EUR 1.085bn at the end of March 2014 as expenditure rose faster than the revenue, data from the finance ministry showed on April 1. The reading accounted for 33.1% of the full-year target and equalled to 1.2% of the projected full-year GDP, according to IntelliNews calculations.
Budget revenue increased 8.8% y/y to EUR 2.59bn as of end-March compared to a 5.6% annual rise by the end of February. The growth was driven by a 7.6% y/y increase in tax revenue, which is the main source of budget income, and by a nearly three-fold annual rise in the non-tax revenue. Budget expenditure rose 10.3% y/y to EUR 3.67bn in March.
The Slovak government targets an end-2014 budget deficit of EUR 3.28bn, based on revenue of EUR 14.1bn and expenditure of EUR 17.39bn. The budget gap is projected to shrink to 2.64% of GDP, below the EU's 3.0% of GDP ceiling.
| thousands EUR | end-March 2014 | end-Feb 2013 | end-2014 target | y/y change | % of target |
| REVENUE | 2,586,660 | 2,376,497 | 14,108,312 | 8.8% | 18.3% |
| --tax revenue | 2,119,458 | 1,970,458 | 8,690,538 | 7.6% | 24.4% |
| --non-tax revenue | 401,676 | 138,059 | 1,397,769 | 190.9% | 28.7% |
| --grants and transfers | 65,526 | 267,980 | 4,020,005 | -75.5% | 1.6% |
| ----receipt sfrom EU budget | 60,614 | 263,501 | 3,173,198 | -77.0% | 1.9% |
| EXPENDITURE | 3,672,468 | 3,329,181 | 17,391,917 | 10.3% | 21.1% |
| --current expenditure | 3,431,420 | 3,124,792 | 14,863,248 | 9.8% | 23.1% |
| --capital expenditure | 241,048 | 204,389 | 2,528,669 | 17.9% | 9.5% |
| BALANCE | -1,085,808 | -952,684 | -3,283,605 | 14.0% | 33.1% |
| Source: Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic | |||||
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