Greek FinMin: 3 Billion Primary Budget Surplus

The Greek Finance Ministry has announced that the state budget is showing a 3 billion euro primary surplus within the first 8 months of 2013.

According to the ministry, the surplus is mainly due to the transfer of returns from Greek bonds from the Central Banks of the Eurozone, to the tune of 1.5 billion euros and to the increase in revenues by 5.9% against targets set, mainly because of indirect taxes.

Deputy finance minister Christos Staikouras noted that a surplus of 2.9 billion euros was registered for the first eight months of 2013, against a deficit of 1.4 billion during the same period last year. The target was for a surplus of 2.5 billion euros.

The Finance Ministry was also pleased with tax revenues, which came in at 4.3 billion euros for August. This was 400 million euros over the target set. Revenues from indirect taxes beat their target by 26.5 percent and offset the poor performance from income tax.