August posts current account surplus
August was the second month in a row that showed a current account surplus as Bank of Greece data published on Monday revealed that the declining trade deficit brought the balance to a surplus of 1.6 billion euros.
Tourism showed a 2.9 percent rise in receipts in August year-on-year, climbing to just under 2.5 billion euros. In the first eight months of the year, tourism receipts declined by 3.4 percent to 7.46 billion euros on a yearly basis.
Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) figures showed on Monday an improvement on the state revenues and expenditure fronts too: At the end of the second quarter of the year, general government revenues amounted to 21 billion euros, up from 20.5 billion in the same quarter a year earlier, while spending dropped from 27.7 billion euros in 2011 to 25.2 billion this year. In the year?s first half the primary deficit declined to 2.8 billion euros from 4 billion in the same period in 2011.
Revised ELSTAT figures put the budget deficit for 2011 at 9.4 percent, up from 9.1 percent, and the debt at 170.6 percent of gross domestic product.
