January 5 (SeeNews) - Serbia's budget balance showed a surplus of 76.3 billion dinars ($774 million/642 million euro) in the eleven months through November, compared to a surplus of 37.4 billion dinars in the prior-year period, according to finance ministry data.
Primary budget surplus increased to 191.6 billion dinars in January-November from 158 billion dinars in the respective period of last year, figures posted on the website of the finance ministry show.
Total budget revenues grew by a real 7.9% on the year, reaching 1.026 trillion dinars in the period under review, while expenditure increased 3.9% year-on-year to 949.5 billion dinars.
Tax revenues rose by a real 9.7% to 888.9 billion dinars, non-tax revenues went down 0.4% to 132 billion dinars, and grants decreased 39.5% to 4.9 billion dinars in the first 11 months of 2017.
On the expenditure side, current expenditure fell by a real 0.9% to 844.6 billion dinars, while capital expenditure soared to 63.4 billion dinars from 22.8 billion dinars in January-November 2016.
In November alone, Serbia reported a budget deficit of 3.5 billion dinars, based on revenues of 91.7 billion dinars and expenditure of 95.1 billion dinars. The primary surplus totalled 4.2 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 of 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 = 118.850 dinars)