As the Ministry of Finance publishes its latest forecasts, the outlook is far from positive. The money available to finance new things is even "negative", but the needs are many. This means that we will either have to think about tightening our belts or raising taxes.
"This will be one of the most difficult budgets. At least in my time in politics, this will be one of the most difficult budgets," said Finance Minister Arvils Ašeradens (New Unity).
The figures on which the government bases its budget have deteriorated in various respects.
Tax collections are down compared to a year ago and economic growth has slowed.
"We are not in a situation where we have to start such a big cost-cutting in an immediate way. Clearly we can maneuver with one or the other cost, but to the extent that we have to say immediately 'okay, my friends, now take 10 million off there, 10 million off there or hundreds of millions' - no, we are not in that situation yet."
Meanwhile tax hikes have already followed in both other Baltic countries. Mainly to finance rising defense spending.
"We see that neighboring countries have acted, and much more decisively. There, one can agree or disagree with each other's decisions. But there it is roughly clear what is at stake. At the moment, we are still hoping that everything will be resolved without doing anything," said Dainis Gašpuitis, an economist at SEB Banka.
The Finance Minister noted that the last date by which the tax changes should be clear is September 15.
