COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark’s government presented on Monday what it said was a “tight” fiscal spending plan for 2023, seeking to help bring down soaring inflation with a much-delayed budget for the year.
“The primary aim is to get Denmark through tough times,” Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen told reporters, calling the government’s policy a “very responsible and broad fiscal budget”.
“It’s a fiscal budget that doesn’t add fuel to the inflation, but that fights it instead,” he added.
The fiscal budget presented on Monday has a tightening effect on the economy equivalent to 0.9 percentage point, the government said.
Danish consumer prices rose last year at a 40-year high rate of 7.7% but inflation is expected to ease to 3.9% this year and 2.8% in 2024, the government announced in March.
The broad budget deal in parliament came after a five-month delay following a snap election and change of government in late 2022.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)