Revenues of state budget showed fatigue last month

Budget revenues are showing clear signs of fatigue, leading to the primary surplus in the January-May period dropping to 1.525 billion euros from 2.33 billion euros after the first four months of the year.

According to the figures issued on Monday by the State General Accounting Office, there was a revenue shortfall of 269 million euros in May compared to the target set for the month, which led to alarm bells sounding at the Finance Ministry following several months of high collections.

Revenues that came in below the targets set were those from the income tax on special categories, from the value-added tax on tobacco, from the special consumption tax on energy commodities and from privatizations.

Net budget revenues in the first five months of 2018 came to 18.42 billion euros, 834 million euros or 4.7 percent above the target.