Slovakia's state budget deficit widened by 40.9% y/y to EUR 1.516bn at the end of April 2014 as expenditure rose faster than the revenue, data from the finance ministry showed on May 2. The reading accounted for 46.2% of the full-year target and equalled to 1.7% of the projected full-year GDP, according to IntelliNews calculations.

Budget revenue inched up by 0.8% y/y to EUR 3.46bn as of end-April compared to a 8.8% annual rise at the end of March. The weaker growth came as tax revenue, which is the main source of budget income, declined by 1.7% y/y. Non-tax revenue, on the other hand, jumped 158% on the year to EUR 554mn. Budget expenditure rose 10.4% y/y to EUR 4.97bn in the first four months of 2014.

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. The shortfall is aimed to be cut further to 2.49% of GDP in 2015, to 1.61% in 2016 and to 0.54% in 2017.

The European Commission launched the excessive deficit procedure against Slovakia in 2009. The EDP is a step-by-step procedure for correcting excessive deficits that occur when one or both of the rules that the deficit must not exceed 3% of GDP and public debt must not exceed 60% of GDP are breached.

In its semi-annual report to the European Commission, the Slovak statistics office estimated that the general government deficit fell to 2.77% of GDP in 2013 from 4.48% a year earlier.