The primary budget surplus in the first half of this year reached 2.905 billion euros, against a primary surplus target of 1.204 billion euros and a primary surplus of 2.116 billion euros for the same period in 2023, according to the State Budget execution data provided and published by the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry notes that part of the difference in the primary surplus compared to the target in cash terms is not accounted for in the 2024 primary result in fiscal terms. As a guide, an amount of EUR 159 million relating to collections from the Recovery and Resilience Fund does not affect the result in fiscal terms, while a significant part of the difference in tax revenue collection, amounting to EUR 647 million, is accounted for in the 2023 fiscal result. Therefore, the primary result in fiscal terms differs from the result in cash terms. It should be noted that the above refers to the primary result of the Central Government and not to the General Government as a whole, which also includes the fiscal results of Legal Entities and the OTA and OKA subsectors.
For the period from January to June 2024, there is a deficit in the State budget balance of 2.256 billion euros against a deficit target of 3.616 billion euros included for the corresponding period of 2024 in the introductory report of the 2024 Budget and a deficit of 2.462 billion euros in the corresponding period of 2023.
Revenue
In particular, in the period January-June 2024, the amount of net revenues of the State budget amounted to 31,466 million euros, representing a decrease of 287 million euros or 0.9% compared to the target included for the corresponding period in the introductory report of the 2024 budget, as a target of the report included: a) the collection in March of an amount of 1,797 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Fund (TAA), which was mostly collected, that is, 1,687 million euros in December 2023 and an additional amount of 159 million euros was collected in January 2024 and b) the collection in June of a price of 1,350 million euros of the concession contract for services for the financing, operation, maintenance and exploitation of the Egnatia Road motorway and the three (3) vertical road axes, which was signed on 29/3/2024 and the The next steps of the process until payment of the price should be completed in the coming months.
Excluding the above figures, net income increased by €2.701 billion or 9.4% compared to the target. This increase is mainly due to:
- the increase in tax revenue by 1.377 billion euros after deducting refunds and
- to the increase in PDE revenues of 776 million euros.
Total State Budget revenue amounted to 34.690 billion euros, a reduction of 406 million euros or 1.2% compared to the target.
Specifically, the revenues from the main categories of the state budget are as follows:
I. Revenue from the “Taxes” category amounted to €29.198 billion, an increase of €1.258 billion or 4.5% compared to the target included in the 2024 budget report. This superior performance is due to the better performance of personal and corporate income taxes from the previous year collected in instalments until the end of February 2024 (it is noted that an estimated amount of €647 million is recorded in the tax result for 2023), as well as the better performance in tax collection from the current year (VAT, VAT, etc.).
In particular, the following are observed for the main taxes in this category:
- VAT revenues amounted to €11.943 billion and increased compared to the target by €348 million.
- Tax authorities’ revenues amounted to €3.318 billion and are €79 million above target.
- Property tax revenues amounted to 1.603 billion euros and are 77 million euros above the target.
- Income tax revenues amounted to €8.828 billion and increased by €738 million compared to the target, of which Personal Income Tax increased by €128 million, Corporate Income Tax increased by €487 million and Other Income Taxes increased by €124 million compared to the target.
II. Revenue from the “Social Contributions” category amounted to 30 million euros, roughly in line with the target.
III. Revenue from the “Transfers” category amounted to €2,888 million, a reduction of €954 million compared to the target included in the 2024 budget report, mainly due to:
- the collection in December 2023 of the amount of 1,687 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Fund (Resilience Fund), while in January 2024 an amount of 159 million euros was collected, against a target of 1,797 million euros that was initially planned to be collected in March 2024 and
- an increase in EDP revenues of EUR 562 million compared to the target. In particular, of the amount collected above EUR 2,888 million, EUR 2,492 million relates to EDP revenues.
4. Revenue from the “Sales of goods and services” category amounted to €470 million, a reduction of €1.355 billion compared to the target included in the 2024 budget report. The decrease observed is due to the fact that the target in the report included the collection, in June, of the price of the concession contract, of the Egnatia Odos motorway and its three vertical road axes, in the amount of €1.35 billion, which is expected to be collected in the following months, as mentioned above.
V. Income from the “Other current income” category amounted to €2.08 billion, up by €620 million compared to the target included in the 2024 indicative budget report, mainly due to the increase in income from expense reimbursements of €274 million. It should be noted that of the amount collected above €2.08 billion, €296 million relates to EDP revenue, which is up by €214 million compared to the target.
VI. Revenue from the “Sales of fixed assets” category amounted to 24 million euros, against a target of 1 million euros.
Revenue returns totaled €3.224 billion, €119 million less than the target (€3.343 billion).
Total revenues from the Public Investment Programme (PIP) amounted to 2.788 billion euros, an increase of 776 million euros in relation to the target (2.012 billion euros).
The photo in June
In June, the total net revenue of the State Budget amounted to 4.581 billion euros, a reduction of 1.759 billion euros compared to the monthly target, mainly due to the fact that, in the definition of targets in the introductory report, the collection in June of the price of the concession contract, of the Egnatia Odos motorway and its three vertical road axes, in the amount of 1.350 billion euros, which, however, should be collected in the coming months, as mentioned above.
The revenues by major category of the State Budget for June 2024 are as follows:
I. Revenue from the “Taxes” category amounted to €4.484 billion, a reduction of €73 million or 1.6% compared to the target. In particular, the following are observed for the main taxes in this category:
- VAT revenues amounted to €1.756 billion and increased by €51 million over the target.
- Tax authorities’ revenues amounted to EUR 604 million and are EUR 8 million above target.
- Property tax revenues amounted to 189 million euros and fall short of the target by 69 million euros.
- Income tax revenues amounted to €1.394 billion and are €15 million below target.
II. Revenue from the “Social Contributions” category amounted to 5 million euros, in line with the target.
III. Revenue from the “Transfers” category amounted to €127 million, a reduction of €403 million compared to the target set out in the introductory report of the 2024 budget. An amount of €119 million relates to EDP revenue, which is reduced by €399 million compared to the target.
4. Revenue from the “Sales of goods and services” category amounted to 64 million euros, a decrease of 1.373 billion euros compared to the target included in the 2024 budget report. The decrease observed is due to the fact that, in the definition of targets in the report, including the collection in June of the price of the concession contract, of the Egnatia Odos motorway and its three vertical road axes, in the amount of 1.350 million euros, which is expected to be collected in the following months, as mentioned above.
V. Revenue from the “Other current revenue” category amounted to EUR 513 million, increased by EUR 28 million compared to the target set out in the introductory report of the 2024 budget. An amount of EUR 89 million relates to EDP revenue, which is increased by EUR 79 million compared to the target.
Revenue returns totaled €612 million, €61 million less than the target (€673 million).
Total PDE revenue amounted to 208 million euros, 320 million euros lower than the target (528 million euros).
The expenses
State Budget expenditure for the period January-June 2024 amounted to 33.722 billion euros and is reduced by 1.647 billion euros compared to the target (35.368 billion euros), which is set out in the introductory report of the 2024 budget. It is also increased, compared to the same period in 2023, by 385 million euros.
In the ordinary budget, payments were reduced by EUR 1.776 billion compared to the target. This change is mainly due to the deferral of transfer payments to the OKA of EUR 1.126 billion and the costs related to equipment programmes of EUR 415 million. Transfers to other legal entities increased by EUR 309 million, i.e. incrementally compared to the target. More specifically, €110 million was paid by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food to ELGA for compensation of farms affected by flooding due to the DANIEL-ELIAS disasters in the period from September 2023, €162 million from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport as a subsidy to the transport agencies (OASA, OASTH and OSE) and €207 million from the Ministry of Health as a subsidy to the National Central Authority for Health Supplies (EKAPY) to cover the costs of supplying medicines for the needs of the hospitals of the National Health Service and the National Health Service. Papageorgiou. Finally, interest payments were increased by €369 million compared to the target.
Payments in the investment expenditure arm amounted to €5,160 million, showing an increase of €129 million over the target, as the target was exceeded in the PDP.