The Czech lower house approved widening the budget deficit target for 2024 to 282 billion crowns ($12.34 billion) to provide 30 billion crowns for flood aid after heavy rains on last month devastated some towns in regions along the Polish border.
Lawmakers approved the budget amendment in a vote late Tuesday, with none opposing the change.
Last week, the government approved raising the deficit ceiling from the initial target of 252 billion crowns. It also plans to provide 10 billion crowns for flood damage in the 2025 budget, the deficit of which will be set at 241 billion crowns.
The center-right administration aims this year to bring the country’s overall budget deficit, which also includes local governments and other institutions, below the ceiling of 3% of gross domestic product set by the European Union.
This would be the first time it has achieved this goal since 2019, when the budget was in surplus. This was before the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to increased spending to help people facing high electricity bills .
Last month, heavy rains caused the worst flooding in central Europe in at least two decades.
($1 = 22.8530 Czech crowns)