Budget fares well in the year to April
Greece’s state budget showed a primary surplus of more than 1 billion euros in the first four months of the year despite the considerable shortfall in budget revenues.
Data released on Tuesday by Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras showed that the primary surplus in the January-April period amounted to 1.05 billion euros, or 0.6 percent of gross domestic product, against a primary deficit of 306 million euros (or 0.2 percent of GDP) in the same period last year.
Budget net revenues came to 13.84 billion euros, down by 1.051 billion euros or 7.1 percent off the target, with 500 million euros of that concerning the delayed return of revenues from the Greek state bond holdings of the Eurosystem’s central banks. Revenues from the Public Investments Program beat their target by 788 million euros to reach 2.29 billion euros. Staikouras insisted that the revenues shortfall will be covered in the same way as last year.
State budget spending amounted to 17.28 billion euros, which was 578 million euros less than the budget target for 17.86 billion euros in the year to end-April.
