One of the main tasks of the Council for budget responsibility is performing activities related to the monitoring and assessment of the public finance development in the Slovak Republic. Thorough fulfilment of this task requires that the CBR has at disposal up-to-date forecasts of fiscal indicators, in particular public deficit, and debt.
The fiscal forecasts of the CBR serve, particularly, to assess how realistic the fiscal framework of the ministry of finance is within evaluation reports of General government budget proposal and Stability programme. At the same time, forecasted developments of the government consumption and investment are inputs in macroeconomic forecasts of the CBR.
Staff of the CBR’s office prepare and release a forecast of public deficit in a current year on a monthly basis. This forecast, known as the budgetary traffic light, serves also as a starting point when preparing medium-term fiscal forecasts.