Greek Jan-Nov central gov’t budget surplus tops target

Greece’s central government registered a primary budget surplus of 4.35 billion euros ($4.79 billion) in the first 11 months of the year, beating its target, thanks to lower spending, Finance Ministry data showed on Tuesday.

The central government surplus excludes the budgets of social security organizations and local administrations and is different from the figure monitored by Greece's EU/IMF lenders, but indicates the state of the cash-strapped country's finances.

The government's target was for a primary budget surplus – which excludes debt-servicing costs – of 2.65 billion euros for the Jan-to-Nov period.

Tax revenues came in at 41.04 billion euros, 1.35 billion euros below a target of 42.39 billion euros.

But the shortfall was more than offset by lower budget spending which reached 42.48 billion euros, 2.34 billion euros less than targeted, as the cash-strapped country cut back on expenditures to meet its obligations.

[Reuters]