The finance ministry on Thursday reported a primary budget surplus of 6.5 billion euros over the first 10-month period of the year, up from a similar 4.53 billion euros in the corresponding period of 2015, while exceeding the memorandum-mandated goal for the period, which was 3.57 billion euros.
The general government surplus was 1.312 billion euros in the Jan-Oct 2016 period, overturning the 793-million-euro deficit from the same period in 2015. The target for all of 2016 is 1.608 billion euros in surplus.
State budget net revenue reached 42.09 billion euros in the Jan-Oct period, up 2.2 percent from budget targets, while regular budget net revenue was 40.075 billion euros, up 2.4 percent from budget targets.
In the 10-month period, the following categories posted increases: income taxes surpassed targets by 1.2 percent; corporate taxes surpassed targets by 11.8 percent; other direct taxes were up 1.3 percent; VAT on tobacco products surpassed targets by 3.2 percent; other VAT revenues were up 1.3 percent; special consumption taxes surpassed targets by 2.4 percent; indirect taxes were up 2.3 percent; other consumption taxes were up 4.7 percent and other non-tax revenues surpassed targets by 5.9 percent.
Conversely, revenues fell short of targets in the property tax category (down 0.9 percent) and energy sector special taxes (-1.0 percent).
Tax returns totaled 2.386 billion euros, down 90 million from budget targets.
