Officials from the Chamber of Employees (CSL) presented their opinion on this year’s draft budget on Friday, praising selected aspects while highlighting missing measures. Although the government announced plans to prioritise the fight against poverty, the draft budget showed a lack of new avenues and concrete measures against social inequalities and poverty. However, the CSL said it was a transitional budget and it therefore expected the 2025 budget to adequately meet social challenges.
The CSL expressed less concern of fast-rising expenses and slow-growing revenues, as director Sylvain Hoffmann explained:
“We had a pandemic, so we dug deep into our pockets. Then there was the energy crisis, so again, we dug deep into our pockets, in order to help households and especially businesses. Everyone agreed to this, so we can’t now be surprised at the fact the economic situation has worsened somewhat. It’s normal. We have to ask ourselves what the alternative would have been, if we hadn’t offered this support - it’s feasible the situation, in terms of budget at least, could have been even worse, if our economy had collapsed entirely. So I think it’s normal for us to be in a deficit at the moment.”
While the economic situation is certainly not good, it is not quite as bad as one might think, as Luxembourg’s banks have just had two record years. The State budget was better than expected in the autumn, despite the impact of the pandemic and subsequent crises on State coffers.
