The provisional data on the state budget's implementation, which the Ministry of Finance released on Monday, show better performance in tax collection this year by €1.342 billion but exceeding the target in the primary surplus by €1.12 billion for the period of January to August 2024.

According to the preliminary data available for the execution of the State Budget on a modified cash basis, the State Budget balance for the period of January–August of 2024 presented a surplus of €1,048 million, against a target of a deficit of €2,774 million that has been incorporated for the same period of 2024 in the 2024 Budget introductory report and a deficit of €92 million for the same period of 2023. The State Budget Primary Balance on a modified cash basis amounted to a surplus of €7,571 million, against the primary surplus target of €3,316 million, and the primary surplus of €5,596 million performed at the same period of the previous year.

It is known that the difference in tax revenues of €647 million is taken into account in the fiscal result of 2023. The time differentiation of the transfers to SSFs by €1,854 million and the military procurement cash expenditure by €634 million do not have an effect on the fiscal outcome.

With the exception of the above amounts, the overperformance in the State Budget Primary Balance for the period of January–August is €1,120 million.

Therefore, the primary balance in fiscal terms differs in comparison to the result in cash terms. It is pointed out that the aforementioned concerns the primary balance of the central administration and not of the whole of the general government, which also includes the fiscal results of legal entities and the sub-sectors of LGs and SSFs.

In addition, the above amounts concern the comparison against the State Budget 2024 introductory report targets. When the Stability Programme was being made in April 2024, a fiscal basis of €1,238 million was already taken into account. This amount comes from an updated estimate of tax revenues for 2024 and is meant to cover higher costs in the regular budgets of the general government entities and the national part of the PIB.

AUGUST - JANUARY 2024

For the period of January – August 2024, State Budget net revenues amounted to €45,137 million showing an increase of €232 million Euros or 0.52% against the target of the corresponding period, which is included in the 2024 Budget introductory report, despite the fact that the target of the Budget introductory report includes: a) the amount of €1,797 million from Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the biggest part of it, namely €1,687 million has been collected in December of 2023 and an additional amount of €159 million has been collected in January 2024 and b) the collection in June of the agreement’s value amounting to €1,350 million, for the service concession contract for the financing, operation, maintenance and exploitation of Egnatia Motorway and three (3) vertical road axes, which was signed on 29th of March 2024. The subsequent steps of the process until the payment of the fee are expected to be completed within the next few months.

ΤΑΧ REVENUES

Tax revenues amounted to €43,092 million, 4.8% higher than the target, which is included in the 2024 budget introductory report. This overperformance is due to the better performance of the previous year income taxes of natural and legal persons collected in installments until the end of February 2024 (it is noted that an estimated amount of €647 million is counted in the fiscal result of 2023), as well as the better performance in the collection of the current year taxes. Therefore, the tax revenue overperformance, which is accounted for in the 2024 fiscal result, is €1,342 million.