“Since 2016, the Estonian state has been living beyond its means, with expenditure exceeding income. It is costing more and more money to service the loans, which is not sustainable,” said Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. “The government is determined to put public finances in order and move towards a balanced budget. We have agreed that austerity will be a key feature of the national budget of next year. There will be no additional applications this year – we have to make do with the money we have.”
Minister of Finance Mart Võrklaev said that the budget deficit of recent years is of a permanent nature. “The crises of the past few years and the large additional fixed costs taken on at that time have led to a strong mismatch between public expenditure and income,” he said. “The tax decisions we have already made have improved the poor fiscal situation a little, but there is still a lot of work to be done to reduce the deficit and we need to be ready to postpone some spending.”
In addition to the new economic forecast, an overview of the implementation of the country’s long-term development strategy “Estonia 2035” was given to the members of the government at the first cabinet meeting focusing on the budget. Changes in the indicators that are important for the development of the country can be monitored on the website of Statistics Estonia: https://tamm.stat.ee/
The Ministry of Finance will present the latest financial forecast at the joint ministry building at 1 p.m. After the presentation, it can be viewed here: https://www.fin.ee/riigi-rahandus-ja-maksud/fiskaalpoliitika-ja-majandus/rahandusministeeriumi-majandusprognoos
