Federal budget to help environmental schemes
Parliament has approved next year's federal budget including measures to boost spending on environmentally friendly building projects.
The 2009 budget foresees a surplus of SFr948 billion ($819 million).
The House of Representatives on Tuesday followed the Senate in approving extra spending of about 120 million compared with the government draft budget, including a SFR340-million package to stave off the looming recession.
Total expenditure for 2009 is set at SFr59.02 billion against SFr59.97 billion in revenue.
As part of the debate the Senate reduced by SFr500,000 the budget’s contribution to the Swiss Review magazine – a publication for the Swiss expatriate community.
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