Serbia's budget surplus expands in Jan-Aug

Primary budget surplus rose to 155.4 billion dinars in January-August from 123.8 billion dinars in the respective period of last year, according to data posted on the website of the finance ministry.

Total budget revenues grew by a real 7.4% on the year, reaching 744.5 billion dinars in the period under review, while expenditure increased 2.5% to 678 billion dinars.

Tax revenues rose by a real 8.1% to 639.3 billion dinars, non-tax revenues went up 5.7% to 102.2 billion dinars, and grants decreased 44% to 3.1 billion dinars in the first eight months of 2017.

On the expenditure side, current expenditure fell by a real 2.2% to 604.4 billion dinars, while capital expenditure soared to 41.7 billion dinars from 16.9 billion dinars.

In August alone, Serbia reported a budget surplus of 6.45 billion dinars, based on revenues of 84.8 billion dinars and expenditure of 78.3 billion dinars. The primary surplus stood at 14.9 billion dinars.

The fiscal deficit of the country amounted to 7.9 billion dinars at the end of 2016, 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.

(1 euro = 119.326 dinars)