Federal finances Projection assumes less high federal deficit for 2024

The federal government's accounts should look slightly less bad at the end of the year than initially feared. According to the first projection, the financing deficit will be CHF 1.6 billion instead of CHF 2.6 billion. The reason for this is a credit postponement to next year.

Specifically, the one-off extraordinary capital subsidy to SBB of CHF 1.15 billion will not be booked until 2025, as announced by the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) on Wednesday. The Federal Council was informed of the results of the extrapolation on the same day.

In the ordinary budget, the budget deviations roughly cancel each other out. An ordinary financing deficit of CHF 0.4 billion is expected. A deficit of CHF 0.5 billion was assumed in the budget. Both revenue and expenditure are lower than budgeted.

The Parliament Act stipulates that the Federal Council must prepare projections of the expected annual result as at June 30 and September 30 and inform Parliament accordingly. The projection is an estimate and should therefore be interpreted with caution.

SDA