Prague - The Finance Ministry has prepared the first draft budget for 2014. The draft document, which was handed to the government, expects a zero economic growth, an unemployment rate of around 7.6 percent and a 1.2 percent drop in household consumption in 2014. The budget deficit is estimated to increase slightly to CZK 105 billion (EUR 4.1 billion).
Aktualne.cz has the document at its disposal.
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It is the last budget the government will approve before its term expires in 2014. The final budget document will have to be presented to the Chamber of Deputies by the end of September.
The draft budget allocates CZK 800 million (EUR 31 million) more to the Culture Ministry than this year, almost CZK 500 million more to the Interior Ministry, CZK 100 million more to the Czech Academy of Sciences, CZK 15 million more to the Chamber of Deputies and CZK 13 million more to the President's Office. The Senate and the Office of the Government will get CZK 3 million and CZK 4 million less than this year, respectively.
Also, there are no more across the board budget cuts in the draft document.
The Environment Ministry is expected to raise CZK 1.8 billion in 2014, CZK 2 billion in 2015 and CZK 2.4 billion in 2016 by selling emission allowances.
The draft expects the pension system to run a CZK 32 billion deficit in 2014, calling it an "important part of the state budget deficit." The Labor Ministry's expenses for 2014 are estimated at more than CZK 500 billion.
The budget reserve fund will increase from this year's CZK 136 billion to CZK 146 billion.
In April this year, the government announced that ministries will cut a total of CZK 8.6 billion from their budgets. This sum was expected to be used for pro-growth measures, whose importance has been stressed by President Milos Zeman. However, the ministries have manged to cut only CZK 1.9 billion so far.
