欧美文化:Slovenia aims to cut budget deficit, debt in coming years

LJUBLJANA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Slovenian government is aiming to reduce its budget deficit and public debt in the coming years, it said on Wednesday, while announcing a bigger deficit expected this year.

The country's budget deficit this year is expected to rise to 4.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from a share of 3.9 percent in 2022, the government said. Meanwhile, public debt should gradually fall to 63.5 percent of GDP by the end of 2026, from 69.9 percent at the end of 2022.

Slovenia's deficit should fall to 2.8 percent of GDP in 2024, in line with European Union rules requiring member states to keep their deficits below 3 percent of GDP.

"In the years 2025 and 2026 the fiscal effort should enable further reduction of deficit to 2.2 and 1.3 percent of GDP," the government said in a statement.

Last year, the government took hefty measures to help citizens and companies overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, and also managed to cut deficit and debt which had both increased sharply during the pandemic.

With a GDP growth of 5.4 percent last year, Slovenia expects its GDP to increase by 1.8 percent this year, and accelerate to 2.5 percent in 2024, mainly counting on the growth of exports, household spending and investments, the macroeconomic institute UMAR said last month.