economy

Inflation is often referred to as a tax, imposed without parliamentary approval, without legislation and without considering the consequences. Today’s inflation is special: printing money seemed to be pretty much the only way to respond to the pandemic and to finance rising public spending.

Mobile network operators welcome the decision by Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Andres Sutt (Reform) to put three 5G frequency authorizations up for auction instead of four.

According to a representative survey commissioned by the economic think-tank INESS, very few Slovaks know what employer levies are paid today, or what their actual amount is.

Rising consumer prices have become an important issue both in the world and in Slovakia. Although with the current single-digit growth, consumers of the 1970s would have laughed us out, it is good that we are talking about this topic out loud. Perhaps it will help us avoid much bigger problems.

After a turbulent year and a total of three general elections, Bulgaria finally has a government. Much like the new power in Germany, it is far from a stable, single-party rule but rather a patchy, colorful coalition of small powers and former enemies.

The tax system should not be used to implement social policy objectives. The tax system should be purely a mechanism that collects from citizens and companies, in the least distortionary way, the least amount of money necessary for the functioning of the state, the financing of its obligations and its policies.

The economy has not yet recovered from the corona-crisis and is already threatened by another serious danger: green-flation. Based on the sound similarity of two words, inflation-greenflation, this new English phrase has only recently emerged.

Current inflation is partly the result of global processes: rising energy commodity prices and disruptions in supply chains. However, its scale in individual countries is the result of the policies of individual governments.

Governments have responded to the pandemic by printing money, thus disrupting the usual economic relationships. Financial capital, which was long been regarded as a most-demanded resource, has lost its position to raw materials which in turn have lost to labor force.

Lithuania ranks 6th in the 2021 International Tax Competitiveness Index presented by the US-based Tax Foundation. Estonia maintains the top ranking and the neighboring Latvia comes second, followed by New Zealand, Switzerland and Luxembourg.