New Finance Minister aims to reduce deficit and curtail Social Democratic budget proposal

The new Civic Democratic Finance Minister, Vlastimil Tlusty, has revealed that according to an audit proposal, next year's budget deficit should be set at somewhere between 101 and 127.6 billion crowns (up to $5.6 billion US). Mr. Tlusty said on Monday that the deficit of more than 88 billion crowns (nearly $4 billion US) approved by Jiri Paroubek's government goes against the rules of setting the state budget. Mr. Tlusty has called on all political parties in the lower house to begin talks immediately, to achieve agreement on the budget and avoid a high deficit. Mr. Tlusty also said that the Czech Republic will not enter into the ERM II system next year (which goes into effect before adoption of the Euro) due to the poor state of the country's public finances.