Civic Democrats vow to lower state budget deficit significantly by 2013

The Civic Democrats have announced plans to lower the state budget deficit to three percent of Gross Domestic Product by 2013. Lowering the deficit to this level is one of the conditions for the Czech Republic to adopt the euro. This year, the party aims to decrease the deficit to 5.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The country’s biggest right-of-centre party is also pushing for legislation that would punish ministers and deputies for actions that affect the state budget negatively. Reforms in the pension sector and budget cuts in several ministries are a part of this new plan that the party says would get rid of the state budget deficit entirely by 2017. The leader of the Civic Democrats, Petr Nečas, said on Wednesday that the party would not increase taxes, since that would hinder economic growth.