Finance minister estimates GDP between 0 and minus two percent

The country’s Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has said that the finance ministry is currently working within an estimate of between 0 to 2 percent negative growth of the GDP in 2009, as a result of the continuing global economic crisis. He made the comment on a Sunday TV debate programme, adding that a minus two-percent drop would see a state budget deficit of between 110 and 120 billion crowns. This year’s state budget, passed in December, originally estimated on GDP growth of 4.8 percent, with a deficit if 38.1 billion crowns. In January, after the country was hit by the crisis, the ministry first revised its numbers downward to 1.4 percent.

Author: Jan Velinger