2024-07-29 09:51:05
“Borrowing should be applied only to those expenses which are temporary and which are necessary – let’s say, in a specific case, to increase the financing of national defense. If we were talking about borrowing for current expenses – let’s say, for education, health care, other state functions, this is definitely not a sustainable way”, said Ž. Mauricas to “Žinių radio”.
Apart from the reception of the German brigade and the creation of strategic military infrastructure, the economist also emphasized that borrowing for necessary expenses is a better alternative than raising taxes. However, according to Ž. Mauric, as the industry’s expectations deteriorate, the government will have to return to tax solutions, including the elimination of inefficient benefits, such as those for central heating.
“The forecasts of all institutions for the next year seemed too optimistic, but now we see that the expectations are getting worse,” emphasized Ž. Mauricas.
“We should clean up our yard, our tax system, go back to tax reform, so that we don’t go the easy way, that here we are increasing a certain tax by one percentage point, but increasing the fairness of the tax system,” he asserted.
In addition, according to Ž. Maurico, due to the smaller debt compared to neighboring countries, Lithuania has “more space” to further slightly increase the budget deficit.
“In Lithuania, the budget deficit is very small. We were very lucky here – we received above-plan income thanks to a faster-than-expected inflation jump in economic growth. We have relatively more of that space than many other countries – for example, Poland has a significantly larger deficit, or Estonia, despite the fact that it raises taxes,” the economist added.
As announced by the State Data Agency, industrial expectations in Lithuania deteriorated in June – it was fixed at just 0.2 percent. achieving annual industry growth. Industrial production in June. contracted by 2.1 percent compared to May. The output of manufacturing production also shrank in a similar way (2.2%).
2024-07-29 09:51:05