Slovakia closed the first quarter of 2012 with a deficit of EUR 1.155 billion, according to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Finance this week.
The deficit for March was EUR 500 million over the 2010 figure, with a 10.3% y/y drop seen in revenues (to EUR 2.468m) against higher expenditure by 6.3% (to EUR 3.623m). This is partly caused also by fewer funds flowing from the EU after some programmes were suspended.
The Ministry of Finance, which will change hands this week, claims that the deficit will nevertheless be lower than planned for this year, now projected at 4.4% of GDP. Last year the figure ended at 4.8% of the GDP (impressive considering it started at 7.7%), with public debt of around 43.3% of GDP, according to preliminary figures.