The Fiscal Discipline Council (Council) generally commends the work of the Ministry of Finance in preparing the 2020 budget framework, which began in government on Tuesday. However, the impact of the tax reform remains substantial and the compensatory measures are inadequate. Therefore, the Council considers that, in line with the requirements of the Fiscal Discipline Law (FDL), next year's budget expenditure should be reduced by EUR 94 million in comparison to the draft budget presented. This opinion was presented to the Cabinet of Ministers on Tuesday by the Chairman of the Council, Janis Platais.

FDC: government's decision to establish fiscal security reserve in amount of 0.1% of GDP in 2020 is sufficient.

That day the Council held a regular meeting, where leading macroeconomy experts of the Ministry of Finance took part. They discussed the latest macroeconomic forecasts of Latvia, which will be used as the basis for 2020 state budget, as well as for 2020-2022 medium-term budgetary frameworks.

Only a fifth or 18% of the respondents in Latvia follow the state budget, but 82% do not do so, according to a survey conducted in April 2019 on the state budget discipline. Comparatively, in 2016, this interest was 25%, 21% in 2017 and 19% in 2018.

Fiscal Council is seeking to recruit secretariat staff members. More information available here in Latvian.