Lithuania passes 2019 budget\, no extra cash for striking teachers

Lithuania passes 2019 budget, no extra cash for striking teachers

Reuters  |  VILNIUS 

(Reuters) - approved a 2019 budget on Tuesday that boosts defence spending but does not meet demands of teachers who have gone on strike to demand higher wages.

Revenues are expected to be 17.2 billion euros ($19.6 billion) and expenditures 17.0 billion euros next year, including 1.9 billion euros in EU support. The government expects a surplus of 1.5 billion euros by year-end.

Lawmakers voted to raise the outlay for defence to up to 2.05 percent of (GDP), a ministry spokesperson said, from 2 percent of GDP planned for this year.

The NATO member state's main political parties are committed to increasing defence spending every year for the next decade, reaching at least 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030. U.S. has repeatedly pushed European allies in NATO to pay more for collective defence.

Lithuania's central bank, however, has warned the government it is unlikely to meet its revenue target and will face a "significantly worse" balance in 2019 than the stated goal of a surplus of 0.4 percent of GDP.

has refused to raise pay for teachers, thousands of whom have been on strike over wages.

Last week Skvernelis blamed the strikes on the opposition Homeland Union Party, which has expressed support for demands, for what he described as an attempt to topple his government by "stoking chaos".

($1 = 0.8790 euros)

(Reporting By Andrius Sytas; Editing by Simon Johnson and Mark Heinrich)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, December 11 2018. 22:33 IST