LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), September 30 (SeeNews) – Slovenia's general government budget was in deficit of 1.1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) or 2.9% of GDP, while consolidated debt was equivalent to 83.1% of GDP, the country's statistics agency said on Friday following a regular revision of data.
The 2015 deficit of the general government budget has been lowered by 13 million euro since the last estimate made in April this year, while consolidated debt has been increased by 0.1 p.p. to 32.1 billion euro, the statistics agency said in a statement.
Total revenue of the general government increased by a nominal 3.7% in 2015, reaching 17.4 billion euro. Most of the revenue (510 million euro or 3.6%) came from taxes and social security contributions. Investment grants, mainly from EU funds, increased by 11.5% compared to the previous year, reaching 705 million euro.
Compared to 2014, expenditure was 0.8% lower in nominal terms and amounted to 18.5 billion euro last year.
The government decreased gross fixed capital expenditure by 4.2% to 1.8 billion euro, capital transfers by 34.9% to 566 million euro and stabilised interest expenditures, which declined by 3.9% to 1.1 million euro, the statistics office said. The reduction in interest expenditure resulted in the first primary surplus (19 million euro or 0.1% of GDP) since 2008.
Deficit at the central government level amounted to 1.3 billion euro or 3.3% of GDP in 2015. The increase in 2014 and 2015 was mostly due to the bad bank’s (Bank Asset Management Company) operations, primarily cancellation of claims, conversion of bad loans into equity shares of companies and conversions of debt into real estate, the statistics office said.
Slovenia's government said earlier this month that it expects the country's budget deficit to be equivalent to 1.6% of GDP next year before falling to 0.7% in 2018.
($=0.894510 euro)