Social Democrats on 2007 budget

The opposition Social Democratic Party has said it is ready to discuss a state budget for 2007 which would respect its policy priorities and whose deficit would not exceed 4 percent of GDP. Due to time pressure the minority Civic Democrat government has decided to amend a state budget proposal put forward by the outgoing Social Democrat Cabinet, rather than present its own. The new finance minister, Vlastimil Tlusty, said that next year's budget deficit should be set at somewhere between 101 and 127.6 billion crowns (up to 5.6 billion US dollars).