Czech state budget gap may reach 200 billion crowns in 2009

The Czech state budget gap could reach up to 200 billion crowns (just under 10 billion US dollars) if the economy drops by 2 percent in 2009, Tomáš Uvíra, the candidate for finance minister, has said. He made the statement at a conference on EU and state aid to companies on Wednesday. The forecast is bigger than a 150 billion crown deficit predicted by the outgoing Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek. Mr Uvíra, a department head at the Finance Ministry, is expected to replace Mr Kalousek when the country’s new caretaker government is named to office on May 8.

The central state budget gap is the main part of the country's overall fiscal system. Outgoing Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has predicted the total public sector deficit to reach 4.5 to 5 percent of gross domestic product this year.