The deficit of the state budget dropped slightly to €2.586 billion in September from €2.675 billion reported in August, the Finance Ministry announced on Monday, October 1. At the same time last year, the state financial management ended up in the red, equaling €2.159 billion.
The overall deficit planned for the whole of 2012 is €3.675 billion and the current situation represents 70.4 percent of this sum. State revenues at the end of September reached €8.202 billion, down by 0.89 percent year-on-year. The overall plan for 2012 has been met by 60.2 percent, the TASR newswire wrote. State expenditures were at €10.788 billion, growing by 3.4 percent year-on-year. From the projected sum of €17.3 billion, 62.4 percent has already been used.
The year-on-year drop in state revenues was mainly due to a fall in income from the EU budget amounting to €323.7 million. This reduction was related to a temporary halt in payments from the European Commission following previous inspections.
"These resources will come to the state budget with a delay, without having any effect on the deficit in 2012 according to the ESA 95 methodology," said the Finance Ministry as quoted by TASR. The shortfall in revenues was compensated with an increase in the income from dividends reaching €340 million. Tax revenues at the end of September recorded a year-on-year drop of €20.3 million, while other revenues went south €73.2 million (including drops in the interest income - €13.6 million, and other non-tax income - €53.4 million).
"The increase in the expenditures of the state budget was mainly due to the rise in the cost of the state debt, which increased by €221 million year-on-year, in line with the state budget," said the ministry.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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