June has taken a heavy toll on year’s budget
Budget revenues fell in June while expenditure grew, reinforcing the Bank of Greece’s view that the primary surplus will miss the 3.5 percent target and come in instead at 2.9 percent of gross domestic product.
The June data are cause for serious concern as the next government after next Sunday’s election will have to quickly restore the budget to its proper course in order for the agreed targets to be met. Provisional figures show that state budget revenues slumped in June, according to sources dropping 24.3 percent to 2.3 billion euros (per data up to June 25) against 3.06 billion in the same period last year.
At the same time budget spending soared to 3.44 billion euros, against 2.69 billion in June 2018, which constitutes an annual increase of 27.8 percent.
June’s lower takings and increased expenditure have a significant impact on the data for the first half of the year: Revenues in January-June are down 4.1 percent from the first half of 2018, while spending has topped last year’s by 13.3 percent.
It also appears that the course of the year’s figures to date will be very difficult to change in the coming months.
