Much-touted ‘excedente’ drops by €934 million
“For people who have become used to budgetary surpluses in Portugal, the year hasn’t started well”. This is the opening paragraph of a story in Correio da Manhã this morning, outlining the ‘shrinking’ of the much-touted ‘excedente’ that the government has spent a lot of time extolling.
That said, the public sector surplus is still at a hefty €1.1777 billion, Lusa points out – putting a much less dramatic spin on the situation. The State news agency highlights ‘expenditure rose more than revenue, with receipts from taxation falling 0.8% year-on-year’.
Said a statement from the ministry of finance: “The change in the balance compared to January 2023 reflects a slight improvement in actual revenue of 0.4%” and “an increase in actual expenditure of 15.7%”.
The figures, released late yesterday, are from a public accounting perspective, adds Lusa, which differs from national accounting, published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) and traditionally used in international comparisons and the assessment by European Union institutions.
CM gives a bit more detail: The 98.3% rise in interest rates in January 2023 did not help; the zero-IVA regime brought in temporarily also affected tax revenue – and then there were the increases in pensions, “which also started being paid in January”.
Another reason for the ‘increase public sector expenditure’ came with the SNS health service, where spending ‘grew’ 8%, even though the problems within the sector persisted.
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
