Estonians receive 10 times more budget money than Belarusians
Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis states that he ashamed of the fact that Estonian budget is larger than Latvian one, Ir magazine reports.
Estonia's budget is almost 9 billion euros, while in Latvia, whose economy is more, it is only about 7 billion euros.
Population of Estonia is not only smaller than that of Belarus, it is even smaller than population of Minsk only 1.3 million. Let's compare, how public funds are spent here and there.
Belarusian budget is smaller than the Estonian one - its expenses this year are 7.2 billion euros (163 trillion rubles). Belarusian economy is almost twice the size (by GDP).
Thus, each Belarusian is allocated 766 euros of the budget money, while every Estonian - 6,793 euros.
Estonia allocates largeer sums from the budget, than Belarus:
On the protection of the environment - up to five times.
On health - three times.
On education - twice.
On social protection - four times.
On national defense - 5% more.
Estonia spend less money than Belarus:
On support of the national economy - 12.5% less.
Senior Analyst of the 'Alpari' Vadzim Iosub believes that this budget structure indicates a greater social focus in Estonia than in Belarus.
"A large sum of money is spent on law enforcement and is buried in the chronically loss-making enterprises. As a result, less and less money is spent on social purposes," says Iosub.
According to the expert, the recipe to achieve the Estonian model is simple:
"Reduce the appetite, and possibly the number of officials, law enforcement agencies. Also, to restructure the public sector of the economy, at least its ineffectivene part -- so that the state is no longer spending money on inefficient enterprises. In this case, there is a chance to get near the structure of the Estonian economy and budget."
However, Vadzim Iosub does not understand, what the president of Latvia is ashamed of.
"The budget shows how much money in the economy is allocated by the state. There is even a theory - the less, the better. Roughly speaking, a smaller budget does not indicate that the people there are worse off. People can pay for services without the mediation of the state budget, and it does not mean a worse economy, worse standard of living and so on."
This year, the Estonian budget expenditures increased by 4.2%, while in Belarus - by as much as 13% (in rubles).
