According to Greece’s Finance Ministry end of the year records released on Thursday, the country’s state budget has recorded a primary surplus of 7.626 billion euros during the 11 month period between January and November 2018.
The number was much higher than the initial target of 4.071 billion euros the ministry had set for this year and almost double to the 4.646 billion euros surplus recorded in 2017.
Expenses from tax returns reached 3.181 billion euros, 475 million less from Greece’s expectations, while state budget spending reached 44.908 billion euros dropping 2.808 billion from set goals. Regular budget spending marked an overall of 42.414 billion euros, also plunging 1.257 billion from targets, pushing budget spending down by 996 million euros in total.
Meanwhile, Public Investment Programme spending was recorded at 2.495 billion euros, 1.550 less than expected with Public Investment Programme revenue hitting 1.851 billion euros for the first time, up by 105 million.
Net revenue was also up 1.6 per cent; regular budget net revenue increased by 1.5 per cent from targets exceeding the ministry’s goals in the below categories:
- individual income tax
- corporate income tax
- property taxes
- other VAT
- other consumption taxes
- indirect taxes
- other non-tax revenue
Finally, revenues fell short of targets in the special categories income tax category (by 2.5 per cent); in the other special consumption taxes (by 2.2 per cent); in direct taxes( by 5.7 per cent); in car registration duties (by 6.2 per cent); and in special consumption tax on energy products (by 0.5 per cent).