August 2 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's budget deficit fell 18.9% on the year of 85.2 million euro ($99 million) in the first half of 2018, equivalent to 1.9% of the projected 2018 gross domestic product (GDP), finance ministry figures show.
Primary budget deficit increased 10.7% on the year to 26.8 million euro in the first half, according to figures published by the finance ministry.
Budget revenues grew by a real 12% on the year, reaching 763.8 million euro in the period under review, while expenditure increased 7.9% year-on-year to 849 million euro.
Tax revenues rose by a real 11.6% to 490.2 million euro, social contributions went up 7.6% to 218.1 million euro, and fees increased by 22.5% to 7 million euro in the first six months of 2018.
On the expenditure side, current expenditure grew by a real 2.4% year-on-year to 395.3 million euro in January-June, while capital expenditure soared 92.7% to 79.2 million euro.
In June alone, Montenegro reported a budget deficit of 21.4 million euro, based on revenues of 140.6 million euro and expenditure of 162.0 million euro. The primary deficit totalled 19.6 million euro.
Montenegro's budget gap widened by 3.2% to 139.1 million euro in 2017.
($ = 0.860803 euro)