August budget data surpass expectations

Greek Reporter

Reuters – Greece’s central government registered a primary budget surplus of 3.756 billion euros  in the first eight months of the year, beating its target by 2.77 billion euros, helped by much lower spending, finance ministry data showed on Tuesday.

The central government surplus excludes the budgets of social security organisations and local administration. It is different from the figure monitored by Greece’s EU/IMF lenders, but indicates the state of the country’s finances.

The government’s target was for a primary budget surplus- which excludes debt-servicing costs – of 980 million euros for the eight-month period.

Tax revenues came in at 29.88 billion euros, 464 million euros above target, while spending stood at 30.8 billion euros, 2.55 billion euros below target.