Based on preliminary data, the State Budget execution indicates a larger than projected fiscal adjustment, as the targeted annual reduction was set at 33.2%.
With this reduction, the budget deficit is lower than that estimated in the 2011 Budget Law by over 1 billion.
The deficit reduction during the period January – December 2010 is mainly due to the significant reduction of expenditures, according to Ministry’s announcement. More specifically, ordinary budget expenditures declined by 9.0% year-over-year against a targeted reduction of 7.5%, while primary expenditures decreased by 10.7% against an estimated 9.0% annual decline.
Investment budget expenditures decreased by 12% against a targeted reduction of 11.3%, while interest expenditures increased by 7.3% against a 7.6% estimated annual increase.
State Budget revenues increased by about 7% and thus remained within the targets as a result of both increased tax and investment budget revenues in December.
Net revenues of the ordinary budget in the twelve months of 2010 increased by 5.5% against a target for an increase of 6% and investment budget revenues increased by 50.2% against a targeted annual increase of 41.7%.
It should be noted that the above data correspond only to the execution of the State Budget deficit and thus do not coincide with the General Government deficit based on the ESA95 (Eurostat’s) definition, which is the benchmark for the assessment of the Economic Policy Programme of Greece. Nevertheless, State Budget execution data indicate that Greece remains well within the targets of the Economic Policy Programme agreed with the EU, the ECB and the IMF in May 2010.
The State Budget Execution Jan–Dec 2010 Preliminary Data can be found attached.
Capital.gr
http://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=1113571
