OE2024: DGO releases February budget execution today – Economy

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance points out that, despite remaining in positive territory, the budget balance was “lower” by 934 million euros compared to the first month of last year, reflecting an increase in expenditure above revenue, with the tax revenue even registering a year-on-year drop of 8%.

“The variation in the balance compared to January 2023 reflects a slight improvement in effective revenue of 0.4%”, affected by the 10.0% increase in Social Security contributions and, in the opposite direction, by the “decrease in tax revenue (-8.0%)”, he says.

Effective expenditure registered a year-on-year increase of 15.7%, reflecting “the increase in interest expenditure (+98.3%), current transfer expenditure (+19.7%) and personnel expenditure (+6 .5%)”.

In January of this year, contributory income “continues to mirror the dynamics observed in the labor market”, with growth of 10.0% now recorded in line with that observed in January 2023.

On the expenditure side, information released by the Ministry of Finance indicates that, excluding the interest bill (primary expenditure), there was a year-on-year increase of 14.1%.

Contributing to the increase in effective expenditure were also personnel expenses, the rise of which reflects the new transversal salary updates for public administration workers and the impact of the new national minimum wage (which increased to 820 euros).

Pension expenditure, in turn, increased by 24.2%, affected by the payment of charges related to IRS withholdings and the effect of the interim increase, he indicates.

The data released today by DGO 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.