Slovakia in 2017 Posted Lowest Public Deficit Ever - 1.04 percent of GDP

Slovakia in 2017 Posted Lowest Public Deficit Ever - 1.04 percent of GDP

Bratislava, June 20 (TASR) – Slovakia in 2017 posted a public-finance deficit of 1.04 percent of GDP (€884.4 million) – the country’s lowest deficit vis-a-vis GDP since it became independent in 1993, according to the Final State Accounts for 2017 approved by Parliament on Wednesday.


The Finance Ministry in the accounts stressed that it had originally projected the deficit to reach 1.29 percent of GDP in 2017. Meanwhile, the average deficit in EU-member countries stood at 1 percent last year.

At the same time Slovakia managed to squeeze its public debt for the fourth year in a row, to 50.9 percent in 2017, down by 1 percentage point year-on-year. The EU average stood at 81.6 percent of GDP in 2017.

Developments in Slovakia’s public deficit came on the back of the country’s continuing economic growth, most prominently featuring 3.4-percent GDP growth, the creation of 51,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent at the end of the year, all also having positive effects on the volume of money collected from pension and health insurance.

In addition, the state collected €250 million more in taxes than expected.
Meanwhile, local and regional authorities even posted a combined surplus exceeding €450 million in 2017.