In general, the Danish economy is performing well, according to Denmark's finance minister, Peter Hummelgaard.
Denmark's finance ministry announced in a press release on Friday that it was adjusting the budgetary surplus, or finanspolitiske råderum, upwards, which essentially means that it expects to be able to spend more money on new policies, or on lowering taxes.
Specifically, the råderum has been adjusted upwards by 8.5 billion kroner, with the government predicting it to be 104 billion kroner in 2035.
The previous government, which Hummelgaard was also a member of, although not as finance minister, increased the råderum multiple times. This is the first time the new government, made up of the Social Democrats, the Green Left, the Moderates and the Social Liberals, have done so.
"Our economic policy has been reasonable for many years, and the Danish economy is strong," Hummelgaard said. "Employment has risen significantly in recent years, in part due to the fact that the elderly are working for longer.
"Companies are doing well and are good at attracting and retaining labour, including labour from abroad. For that reason, we can now increase the budgetary surplus," Hummelgaard said in the finance ministry's press statement.
The government will go into more detail on how exactly the surplus will be spent politically at the beginning of October, when it will present its budget. Denmark's constitution demands a budget is presented no later than four months after the start of the fiscal year, which essentially means it must put forward a budget by the end of August.
The government has not been able to do this due to the election and the long negotiations which followed to form a government, so it has submitted a temporary budget instead in order to meet the demands of the law. This has been done before, after the 2015 and 2019 elections.
The current government does not have a majority in parliament so it will need to negotiate with other parties outside of government in order to gain majority support for its budget.
Hummelgaard told the Ritzau newswire that welfare, schools and defence will be among the highest priorities in the 2027 budget.
"We already said that when we formed the government. Our first budget is to a large extent going to be the first step we take to make our government's policy a reality."
On welfare, he said that the priority will be "the everyday finances of the average Danish family," for example increasing the tax deduction for commuters and ongoing discussions around cutting VAT on food.
He added that defence costs are rising, so the government will need to prioritise some policies over others.
"Maybe we'll find new financing. We might have to say that there are some things we're doing today which public finances won't pay for tomorrow, so that we can do something else for our children and elderly," Hummelgaard told Ritzau.
He didn't go into detail on what exactly those things could be, adding that that's something the governing parties will decide amongst themselves.
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