Slovak Dep FinMin: fiscal gap safely below target

...adoption, Deputy Finance Minister Frantisek Palko said on Wednesday.

Palko said the 2007 fiscal shortfall was likely to come somewhere below 2.5 percent of GDP excluding the state highway company, adding a precise figure would be known in mid-February.

"The planned deficit of 2.9 percent of GDP will be met with a safe buffer even in case the highway company will be included," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "This is not an issue which would make us nervous."

Slovakia must keep the fiscal gap below 3 percent of GDP to qualify for euro adoption in 2009. (Reporting by Martin Dokoupil, editing by Mike Peacock)

Keywords: SLOVAKIA FINMIN/BUDGET

[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]