United States fiscal cliff

Slovenia’s general government deficit in the third quarter of the year shrank to €60 million or 0.4% of GDP, the lowest since the start of the Covid pandemic in the first quarter of 2020.

The Treasury and Finance Ministry's cash balance posted a deficit of 79.3 billion Turkish Liras in September after producing a surplus of 28.6 billion liras in the previous month.

Cash revenues amounted to 217 billion liras last month, while expenditures stood at 296 billion liras.

Ljubljana – Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj highlighted a substantial increase in investments, in particular in healthcare, as he presented the budget documents for the coming two years after the government session on Wednesday.

Ljubljana – The government is meeting this evening to discuss the budgetary documents for 2022 and 2023 which must be sent to parliament by 1 October.

Ljubljana – The government expects that this year’s budget expenditure will be EUR 800 million higher than planned in the current budget documents. It says that the situation regarding Covid-19 had deteriorated significantly since the budgeting process was completed.

The government meets today, Friday, to approve the bills related to the national budget and the state social insurance budget for 2021. Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Thursday that the government deficit target remains set at 7.16%, specifying that, compared to the published version of the draft, there could be some changes in terms of allocations, with more commitment appropriations.

Turkey's current account balance posted a deficit of $273 million in October, bringing 12-month rolling deficit to $33.79 billion, the Turkish Central Bank revealed on Dec. 11. 

The figure was a $2.74-billion surplus in the same month last year, while it was down from $1.8 billion deficit previous month, the bank said.

Greece has returned to budget deficits, instead of surpluses, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bank of Greece data for the January-April period have shown, while the government is preparing to announce a new package of financial measures for the June-September period, probably on Wednesday.

A senior Finance Ministry official on Friday signaled the end of general rent reductions and tax discounts for the timely payment of dues as economic measures are entering a new stage and pressure on the budget is increasing.

The problem. Mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will require a significant increase in public spending to rescue sinking economies and further shield health systems. At the same time, tax revenues will be collapsing as long as economic activity remains suppressed. Budget deficits will inevitably swell, leading to soaring public debt.