The Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek told Prima Family television on Sunday that the Finance Ministry is now expecting a 0.7-percent increase in the country’s GDP next year, a slight decrease from the expected 1 percent. While Kalousek admitted that the performance of the Czech economy will be worse in 2013 than originally predicted, he refused to say that the Czech economy will slip into recession.
“The figures are worsening, but not dramatically,” he said, adding that the outlook will be impacted by lower VAT collections and insurance revenues, among other things. The revised fiscal outlook for 2013 will affect the new draft of the government budget, he said. The Finance Ministry will officially announce its new economic forecast on Wednesday.
