According to an article published today by daily Pravda, Slovakia has to contribute much more to Ireland’s bailout loan than originally declared by the Slovak government.
The original amount of EUR 180 million quoted by finance minister Ivan Miklos now looks set to be more in the range of EUR 319 million. This means that Slovakia has contributed 0.6% of the massive EUR 22.5 billion loan to debt-hit Ireland, a figure that the Ministry of Finance confirmed for the daily.
With Portugal now standing with outstretched hands, the government could find itself in an embarrassing situation, given the fact that three of the four coalition parties were against the bailouts in the first place (KDH agreed with it). Today finance minister Ivan Miklos disclosed that Slovakia would have to cover 1.06% of the projected EUR 80 billion loan for Portugal
This higher percentage is down to the fact that as time goes on, fewer countries are contributing, i.e. those that have crashed already, meaning Greece and Ireland. Initially Slovakia was supposed to provide just 0.99% to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).
As Slovakia wrestles with its own public finance deficit, how ironic is it that it is now providing money to its ‘richer’ neighbours from Western Europe.