Austria plans to halve deficit next year as it adjusts budget forecasts

VIENNA, April 26 (Reuters) - Austria on Wednesday adjusted its planned budget figures to show a deficit of 3.2% of economic output this year, the same as last year and a level that it hopes to cut in half next year. Finance Minister Magnus Brunner of Chancellor Karl Nehammer's conservatives issued a statement with the new figures, which showed adjustments of up to 0.3 percentage points for this year and next year from those in his last annual budget issued in October. "My goal is for Austria's deficit to be significantly less than 3% of GDP (gross domestic product) as of 2024," Brunner said in the statement. "We want to halve the deficit in order to put Austria on a sustainable budget path in the medium term." Brunner's budget figures issued in October had shown a slightly smaller deficit of 2.9% for this year. The latest figures show the deficit halving to 1.6% in 2024, slightly less
than the 1.9% predicted in October. Austria's current parliament ends in autumn 2024. That would bring Austria well within the European Union's 3% cap on budget deficits, which is currently suspended. Austria's conservative-led government advocates staying within that limit outside of crises that justify greater spending such as the COVID-19 pandemic when it, too, went well beyond that cap. The statement also showed slight upward adjustments to Austria's planned debt-to-GDP ratio, to 77% this year from a previously announced 76.7%, and 75.1% next year from 74.8% announced in October. (Reporting by Francois Murphy and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)