Budget was 3 bln euros better off by end-May

Budget revenues appeared to record a significant increase in the first five months of the year, according to data released on Thursday by the State General Accounting Office.

The state collected 17.25 billion euros in the year to end-May, 759 million euros or 4.6 percent above the target. However, these provisional figures may not lead to safe conclusions regarding the course of tax revenues, which is not clear at this stage.

These figures show that the primary budget surplus in the January-May period amounted to 2.267 billion euros, against a target for a primary deficit of 820 million euros. This means the target has been exceeded by about 3.09 billion euros. This development is only partly due to the rise in revenues, as most of the difference has come about thanks to the drastic cut in expenditure, by 2.7 billion euros in the period.

For the budget to meet its target for a primary surplus of 0.5 percent of gross domestic product at the end of the year, state revenues must amount to 4.5 billion euros per month. If that doesn’t happen, the automatic mechanism for the correction of fiscal digressions will be activated, as agreed by the government and its creditors last month. In May budget revenues amounted to 3.14 billion euros, beating the target by 437 million.