LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), September 30 (SeeNews) – Slovenia's general government budget showed a surplus of 52 million euro ($58.1 million), equivalent to 0.5% of GDP, in the second quarter of this year, for the first time since 2008, the country's statistics agency said on Friday.
The surplus was the result of higher revenues (+3.2%) and lower expenditure (-3.7%), compared to the same period of 2015 when the general government budget was in deficit of 275 million euro, the statistics agency said in a statement.
Slovenia's general government budget showed a deficit of 351 million euro in the first quarter of this year.
In the April-July period, actual social contributions increased the most compared to the same period last year, rising by 113 million euro or 8.2%. Revenues from taxes on production and imports also increased (by 48 million euro or 3.4%), as did taxes on income and wealth (by 41 million euro or 5.5%).
Similarly to the January-March period of 2016, investment grants decreased in the second quarter compared to the year before by 95.0%.
"This drop could be attributed mainly to the transition to the new EU financial perspective," the statistics office said.
On the expenditure side, gross fixed capital formation amounted to 237 million euro for the second quarter, 48.9% less than in the same period last year. Capital transfers also decreased by 66.4%, declining to 38 million euro.
The general government sector recorded a primary surplus of 346 million euro or 3.4% of GDP in the second quarter of 2016, up 338 million euro compared to the same period last year.
Consolidated gross debt of the reviewed period amounted to 32.3 billion euro or 82.3% of GDP, down 0.6% on the quarter.
Slovenia's central government debt amounted to 31.8 billion euro at the end of the second quarter of 2016 (98.3% of the total government debt).
Local government debt reached 744 million euro (2.3% of the total government debt), while social security funds debt totalled 1 million euro.
Main aggregates of quarterly non-financial accounts for general government (in millions of euro):
| |
April-July 2016 |
Jan-March 2016 |
April-July 2015 |
| General government |
|
|
|
| -revenues |
4,472 |
3,993 |
4,334 |
| -expenditures |
4,420 |
4,344 |
4,610 |
| Net lending (+), net borrowing (-) |
52 |
-351 |
-275 |
| Primary deficit (-), surplus (+) |
346 |
-57 |
8 |
| Consolidated gross debt |
32,314 |
32,506 |
30,662 |
| -Central government |
31,759 |
31,931 |
30,050 |
| -Local government |
744 |
773 |
795 |
| -Social security funds |
1 |
1 |
1 |
($=0.894510 euro)