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18 November 2013

Austrian Parliament: Fekter dismisses talk of budgetary crisis


"There is no sign of a budget hole", said Finance Minister Maria Fekter in her statement on the government's budget, adding that in her opinion the recent representation of the budgetary situation had been "misleading".

Translated from the German

In the official notes of the committee meetings of the Austrian Nationalrat, Finance Minister Maria Fekter denied the existance of the budget "hole" (reported here). 

Reports on the 2013 budget execution show that the 2013 budget is being implemented better than expected, although it was created based on a GDP growth forecast of 1 per cent growth in 2013, a forecast that has now been reduced to 0.4 per cent. In a recent debate on the budget, the Budget Committee called Fekter "untrustworthy" to have spoken of a "budget gap" when in the course of the coalition negotiations differences had been found between the budget path calculated on the basis of a better prognosis in March and the more recent, worse forecasts of October. Fekter denied that she had been "artificially badmouthing" the budget.

Deputy Andreas Schieder recalled that the implementation of the budget since 2011 had always turned out better than planned and would continue to do so in 2013, even though the GDP forecast had been reduced to 0.4 per cent growth. This was testament to the prudent fiscal policy of the Federal Government. The early forecast for 2014, published in October, had shown a growth forecast that was by 0.3 percentage points less. "But predictions never come true exactly as they were made", he said and encouraged politicians to respond as was done successfully in recent years. "We're on the right track: in the next five years we will continue to respond to challenges with reasonable policy", he continued and said he saw no reason for uncertainty. 

Deputy Bruno Rossmann accused the Finance Minister of having violated the obligations set out by the new budget law. She had only assigned €133 million of the budged for the banks and thus misrepresented the true financial situation. The same criticism applied to the tax estimates in the federal financial framework 2014-2017, which had been based on old forecasts even though in March 2013 more current forecasts already existed. Fekter had deceived both Parliament and the public, Rossmann said. It was not the media that was to blame for the chaotic debate in recent weeks, but government negotiators, who had spoken of a budget gap of up to €40 billion.

Full notes (in German)



© Austrian Parliament


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