Public finance|Finland will break the EU’s deficit rules this year, but the Commission believes that the situation will be corrected already next year.
Brussels
European the commission will not take Finland to the so-called excessive deficit procedure, even though it predicts that the public finance deficit will break EU debt rules this year.
The excessive deficit procedure or “economic monitoring category” would mean that Finland would have to commit to the public finance adjustment program set by the Commission in the next few years.
According to the EU’s debt rules, the deficit of the public finances of a member state may not exceed three percent in relation to the gross domestic product. According to the Commission’s forecast, Finland is about to break the rule this year. According to the forecast, the deficit ratio will rise to 3.4 percent this year.
Commission however, he estimates that exceeding the deficit limit is only temporary, and already next year the deficit will fall below three percent. Therefore, in the Commission’s opinion, the initiation of the excessive deficit procedure is not justified.
The Commission’s forecast differs from the Ministry of Finance’s most recent figures. According to the Ministry of Finance’s forecast on Monday, the deficit ratio of the public finances will be 3.7 percent this year and 3.1 percent next year.
However, the Commission bases its decision on the Ministry of Finance’s previous forecast and its own forecast. In them, the deficit ratio was even slightly lower.
The Commission is taking seven member countries into the excessive deficit procedure: Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.
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