603 million euros primary surplus for 2013

The Greek government gets "entrenched" in the final budget implementation data of 2013 that show a primary surplus of 603 million euros. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras will present these figures - instead of an agreement with the troika – to his European counterparts, in the eurogroup meeting of January 27.

The argument seems strong because it was challenged by the Troika and also requires the basic prerequisite for the European partners to carry out measures to alleviate the Greek debt. Only property taxes have supported the tax revenues and the objective was achieved mainly due to the dramatic reduction in expenditure by 15%.

According to the final figures for the execution of the state budget (on a cash basis after reviewing the targets) for 2013:

-       the primary balance was in surplus of 603 million euros, against a primary deficit of 3.464 million for the same period in 2012 and a revised target for the primary surplus of 15 million

-       together with the interest payments, there is a deficit in the balance of the state budget of 5,441 billion euros against a deficit of 15.688 billion in 2012 and revised deficit target of 6,085 billion

However, according to what was announced by the Ministry of Finance:

-       the level of net revenues of the state budget amounted to 53.018 billion euros, a decrease of 224 million euros or 0.4% over the revised target (53.242 billion euros)

-       net revenues of the regular budget amounted to 48.423 billion euros, 317 million or 0.7% higher compared to the estimated outturn of 2013 (48.106 billion euros)
all tax revenues amounted to 44.614 billion euros, exceeding the target by 211 million euros.