A clear message to SV in budget negotiations: – Responsible spending is more important than ever

On Monday, the government began negotiations with SV on the national budget. There is little room to increase spending, or take new tax measures, according to Ab.

– What has happened since the budget was presented is that the numbers have increased the possibility of raising the interest rate in December. It affects negotiations in several ways, says Abs Egil Knutsen, who leads budget negotiations with SV.

The government submitted its national budget proposal to Parliament at the beginning of October.

The budget proposal does not redistribute enough and does not take the environment seriously, according to SV, which called for, among other things, more money for the Food and Anti-Poverty Center.

The government parties began negotiations with SV on Monday at 1:30 p.m. Knutsen says there are several important things, but he stresses the following:

– It is more important than ever to have responsible spending in the budget so that over the next year we can see price growth continue to decline and interest rates peaks pass.

We will be careful with tax measures

Knutsen highlights three ways in which the economic situation affects negotiations and government party priorities.

The first thing is that you have to stop spending money, he says.

-We must have responsible spending in order to pass the interest rate peak as quickly as possible. In the budget, the government proposes to use 2.7 percent of the oil fund, which is much less Verb baseVerb baseThe rule stipulating that no more than three percent of the value of the oil fund may be spent each year on the national budget. . It will be important to confirm this during negotiations.

The second, he says, is that where the government spends money, priority should be given to spending the money on measures that help people’s private finances.

– Interest rate increases hit hard. The budget should try to address the situation in the best possible way. Among other things, the government has proposed cheaper daycare next year – the kind of measure that will become more important, given interest rates are rising again.

The third is that Norwegian companies must have predictability.

– Companies are often forgotten in the debate over key interest rates. But many of them have too many loans and get very high costs from increased interest. For Ap and Sp, it will be important in negotiations to be careful about taking steps, whether in terms of taxes or in other ways, that would directly or indirectly increase the companies’ costs.

-The most important thing we can do

Knutsen says both the ruling parties and the SV agree that the budget must be responsible, and that it is important to help people with measures such as cheap daycare when interest rates rise sharply.

He will not call what he brings as a warning to the saint.

– But it is an indication that the potential rise in interest rates affects the government parties in the budget negotiations, as it is more important for the budget to be responsible for spending money, to relieve people of expenses, and to take care of them. Jobs are in a tough time. The most important thing we can do for people’s personal finances is for them to have a job to go to.

He points out that the government has taken several major measures in the tax field in recent years, both in proposals from the government and in cooperation with SV.

– In the government’s budget proposal, there are net tax cuts amounting to 6 billion. He says this will create calm and predictability.

But if they find room for more investment, he says they will look at measures that boost people’s finances in times of rising interest rates and costs.

– SV has a lot of wishes, as usual, and some of them have already been approved. I won’t say now what the end result will be – but we will protect the file from the government’s budget as we work to strengthen measures for families with children who are struggling in a tight economy.

Negotiations are at least as difficult as in previous years, SV fiscal policy spokesman Carrie Elizabeth Caskey said on Tuesday after the meeting with NTB. At the same time, she confirmed that the atmosphere was good.

She said – We know each other after several years of budget negotiations.