President Elect of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes and his transition team will finish today a meeting with international financial institutions when it is confirmed the new administration will receive its coffers diminished.
In the closed-door meeting participate officials and specialists of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Interamerican Development Bank.
Before starting talks, Funes confirmed to reporters his administration which takes over on June 1, will be compelled to adjust the 2009 budget, having in mind the data provided by the outgoing Executive, in particular, the Finance Ministry.
Approved by outgoing President Antonio Saca, the 2009 general budget included expenses for 3.6 billion dollars, under goals supposedly higher of economic growth, but “there is need to adjust a series of strategies based on false assumptions,” said Funes.
Since the end of 2008, the effects of the crisis began to be felt and since then, he added, there should have been “a preventive attitude that the economy was going to fall and the tax revenue was not what had been expected.”
From those erroneous projections, the Gross Domestic Product in 2009 would grow by four percent. However, the last official figures point to a 0.5 percent and institutions like the IMF expect zero or negative growth.
Due to the drop in the economy, the fiscal revenue fell by 13.8 percent at the closing of February, 2009, indicated the Central Bank and in recent statements, Funes alerted he will receive the presidency with a fiscal deficit near the 500 million-dollar mark.
Nevertheless, he denied that adjustments will sacrifice first of all the social programs.
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