State budget deficit up by almost one quarter

The state-budget deficit amounted to €4.65 billion at the end of August 2024, the Finance Ministry reported on Monday, adding that the budgetary performance thus worsened by 24.7 percent, or by €921 million year-on-year (y-o-y).

State-budget incomes decreased by €490 million, or by 3.6 percent y-o-y, to €13.197 billion in August. Meanwhile, expenditures rose by €431 million, or 2.5 percent y-o-y, to €17.847 billion.

Tax revenues grew by €730 million, or 6.6 percent y-o-y. "Positive developments were seen in incomes from value-added tax, which went up by €203.5 million, withholding tax (up €78.1 million) and excise taxes (up €74.6 million)," said the ministry.

The special levy from businesses in regulated branches saw record growth of €329.7 million y-o-y, while the solidarity contribution from activities in the oil, natural gas, coal and refinery sectors fell by €257.8 million.

Corporate tax went up by €307.4 million y-o-y in August. Conversely, revenues from personal income tax declined by €10.9 million.

The Finance Ministry also recorded a negative development in terms of revenues from the EU budget, which went down by over €1 billion or 67.6 percent.

The cost of state-debt servicing rose by €173 million (27.8 percent) in the eighth month of the year.

State-budget expenditures related to drawing EU funds saw a y-o-y decrease of €79.4 million (-3.9 percent). Payments to the EU budget were €114.1 million (-18 percent) lower than last August.

Meanwhile, expenditures related to drawing money from the Recovery and Resilience Plan declined by €51.1 million y-o-y (-17.4 percent).

Source: TASR