Greek State Misses January to August Budget Revenue Target by 11.9%

    budget targetThe Greek Finance Ministry announced that the revenues for the Greek state between January and August were 30.765 billion euros, which amounts to a 4.153 billion euro shortage in comparison to the Greek budget’s initial target.

    As the finance ministry’s report explains, 1.724 billion of these 4.153 billion euros were lost because the profits from Greek bonds have yet to be transferred to Greece from the Eurosystem- the European Central Bank and the Eurozone countries’ central banks. Another 917 million was never collected due to tax payments.

    The finance ministry’s figures show that Greece continues to have a primary surplus, which reached 3.798 billion euros for the January to August period, with the initial target for this duration being 3.264 billion euros.

    This excess however, is largely justified by the 4.744 billion euro deficit in government spending throughout this period, in comparison to the initial target. The government spent 31.869 billion euros, including public investments, instead of the original 36.613 billion euro budget target.