TIRANA (Albania), July 19 (SeeNews) – Albania's consolidated budget was in deficit of 29.1 billion leks ($276.9 billion/234.5 million euro) in the first half of 2021, lower than the deficit of 38.5 billion leks recorded in the same period of last year, official preliminary figures showed.
Consolidated budget revenue increased by 20.2% year-on-year in the January-June period, reaching 234.3 billion leks, while expenditures rose by 12.9% to 263.4 billion leks, according to data published by the finance ministry last week.
Total tax revenue increased by an annual 20.1% in the six months through June, to 219.0 billion leks, with value-added tax revenue up 17.5% to 68.4 billion leks.
In the 2021 state budget, the Albanian government has forecast economic growth of 5.5% and budget deficit of 120.5 billion leks, equivalent to 6.9% of the projected GDP.
(1 euro = 120.943 leks)