The State recorded a surplus of 785 million euros until February, a value that reflects a decrease of 1,556 million euros compared to the same month of the previous year, the Ministry of Finance announced this Thursday.
In a statement, the Ministry of Finance points out that the year-on-year variation in the budget balance reflects an increase in effective revenue of 4.1% and an increase of 15.9% in effective expenditure.
The ministry, still led by Fernando Medina, points out, however, that these data on the evolution of expenditure and revenue refer to “only” two months of budget execution and “as such, they are still likely to register significant year-on-year variations, the effects of which end to be smoothed throughout the year”.
Contributing to the evolution of revenue, says the same statement, which precedes the release of the summary of budget execution by the Directorate-General for the Budget (DGO), was the increase in contributions to Social Security (+10.4%) and a decline of 2.8% on the tax revenue side — influenced by VAT payment deadlines.
As regards effective expenditure, the year-on-year increase recorded in the first two months of this year reflects the increase in expenditure on current transfers (+15.4%), acquisitions of goods and services (+12.5%), investment ( +98.4%) and personnel expenses (+8.6%).
The rise in personnel expenses is influenced by cross-cutting public administration remuneration updates and the impact of the increase in the national minimum wage to 820 euros. On the investment side, the Ministry of Finance highlights the railway.
“Excluding interest expense (primary expenditure), there is an increase in expenditure of 16.8%”, states the same information.
Expenditure on social benefits (excluding pensions) grew 23.8%, which reflects, above all, the update of the Social Support Index (IAS) and the increase in remuneration.
The statement also points to a 20.9% increase in social benefits for inclusion and an 18.1% increase in pensions.
The data released today by the Government are from the perspective of public accounting, which differs from national accounting, released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) and traditionally used in international comparisons and in the assessment of Brussels.
This is the last statement of this legislature signed by Fernando Medina who, in relation to 2023, leaves the executive with a record of a historic budget surplus of 1.2%, the highest since 1974.
The provisional value of the surplus, released this week by the National Statistics Institute (INE), is in national accounting, that is, it works from a commitment perspective and not from a cash perspective as published by DGO.
