LISBON: Portugal’s public sector had a surplus of 15.2 million in the first two months of the year in public accounting terms, against a deficit of 229.3 million recorded for the same period of last year, according to the budget office (DGO). he summary of budget execution to February “is explained by the increase in receipts (2.9%) greater than the increase in expenditure (0.9%)”.
Receipts were up across the board but above all from direct taxes – both corporate and personal income tax. As for indirect taxes, net receipts were down because of higher reimbursements of value-added tax than in the same period of 2015.
In total the Portuguese state had 6.292 billion in tax receipts in the first two months of the year, down 1.3% on the same period of 2015. On the spending side, the 0.9% year-on-year increase “mainly reflects the increase in personnel spending and interest charges on state debt,” which were “partially offset by the decrease recorded by spending on subsidies for professional training, on unemployment benefits and on investment.”
