June 30 (SeeNews) - Serbia's budget balance showed a surplus of 12.5 billion dinars ($118.2 million/103.6 million euro) in the five months through May, compared to a deficit of 11.3 billion dinars in the respective period of last year, the finance ministry has said.
Total budget revenues grew by a real 7.7% on the year, reaching 434.3 billion dinars in the period under review, while expenditure increased 1.7% to 421.8 billion dinars, according to data posted on the website of the finance ministry on Thursday.
Tax revenues rose by a real 9% to 371.3 billion dinars, non-tax revenues edged down 0.3% to 60.7 billion dinars, and grants increased 20.5% to 2.323 billion dinars in the first five months of 2017.
On the expenditure side, current expenditure fell by a real 0.9% to 387.5 billion dinars, while capital expenditure soared to 17.6 billion dinars from 8.2 billion dinars.
In May alone, Serbia reported a budget surplus of 1.8 billion dinars, based on revenues of 87.3 billion dinars and expenditure of 85.6 billion dinars.
The fiscal deficit of the country at the end of 2016 amounted to 7.9 billion dinars, due to the repayment of 13 billion dinars debt of state-оwned petrochemicals producer HIP Petrohemija owed to oil and gas company NIS [BEL:NIIS] in December. Excluding the Petrohemija debt repayment, the country would have closed 2016 with a consolidated budget surplus of 5 billion dinars, the ministry said earlier.
In 2016, Serbia’s consolidated budget deficit decreased by a real 62% year-on-year to 57.1 billion dinars.
(1 euro = 120.687 dinars)