Serbia's 9-mo budget surplus expands

Primary budget surplus rose to 145.9 billion dinars in January-September from 142.7 billion dinars in the like period of 2018, according to data published by the finance ministry on Monday.

Total budget revenues increased to 929.2 billion dinars from 873.7 billion dinars, while expenditure went up to 879.3 billion dinars from 824.5 billion dinars in the first nine months of 2018.

Tax revenues rose to 808.8 billion dinars in January-September 2019 from 751.1 billion dinars a year earlier, non-tax revenues decreased to 114.5 billion dinars from 117.8 billion dinars, and grants went up to 5.8 billion dinars from 4.8 billion dinars.

On the expenditure side, current expenditure rose to 764.3 billion dinars, from 714 billion dinars, while capital expenditure climbed to 102.2 billion dinars from 91 billion dinars in January-September 2018.

In September alone, Serbia reported a budget surplus of 3.2 billion dinars, based on revenues of 101 billion dinars and expenditure of 97.7 billion dinars. The primary surplus totalled 14.9 billion dinars.

Serbia's budget was in surplus of 32.2 billion dinars in 2018, compared to a surplus of 33.9 billion dinars in the previous year.

(1 euro = 117.451 dinars)