Czech Cabinet yesterday approved a draft of next year’s state budget. The projected budget deficit stands at CZK 20 bil., or 1% of GDP. The approved draft has a reasonable chance of being passed by Parliament, where it could be supported by the opposition ODS, which tolerates the minority Social Democratic government. However, the overall public-finance deficit will be significantly greater than the CZK 20 bil. stated in the draft state budget, since the “state budget” does not include state institutions such as Konsolidacni banka, municipal budgets, etc.
(Ondřej Daťka)