Ansip: state budget optimistic, but planned in a responsible way

  • 2012-09-27

TALLINN - While handing over the daft state budget of 2013 to the Riigikogu, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said on Thursday that when compiling the budget, the government took into consideration the effects of the global financial crisis as well as the firm knowledge that we cannot live at the expense of the future, Public Broadcasting reports.

"The budget that we freshly handed over is optimistic but planned in a responsible way and taking into consideration the possibilities of the state. Despite the fact that we are doing relatively well as compared to many others, insecurity in world economy doesn’t enable us to increase state budget expenditures faster," said Ansip.

In his political statement Ansip also noted that the structure of the Estonian economy is much more durable than during the economic boom and the stability of the economic environment enables to increase the budget next year.

Next year's state budget income is planned to be 7.5 billion euros and expenditures 7.7 billion euros, meaning a 0.7 percent nominal deficit. Expenditures grow by 1.1 percent from this year and the debt burden of Estonian government sector will be the lowest in Europe.