Chamber of Deputies approves 2022 budget

The Chamber of Deputies has approved the 2022 budget. The bill was approved by 99 MPs of the ruling coalition. The opposition parties voted against, arguing that the budget would undermine growth and fails to adequately address the soaring  inflation. The government proposed budget envisages a deficit of 280 billion crowns, ie. close to 100 billion crowns less that proposed by the former government of Andrej Babiš. With regard to current developments, the ruling parties pushed through a proposal for an extra 1.8 billion crowns to be earmarked for assistance to Ukrainian refugees and another one billion crowns of the Czech Army. The bill still needs to be signed by the president, who has already indicated his readiness to do so.