Budget surplus of 1.28 pc of GDP at end-October 2015

The consolidated general budget execution after the first ten months of this year ended with a surplus of RON a 9.04 billion, equivalent to 1.28 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), as compared to the RON 1.9 billion surplus, 0.29 percent of the GDP, recorded at the same period of 2014, according to the Ministry of Finance (MFP) data released on Wednesday.

The general budget execution at end-September 2015 posted a surplus of RON a 6.1 billion, namely 0.87 percent of GDP.

At the same time, the revenues of the general budget, amounting to RON 191.6 billion, representing 27,2 percent of the GDP, were by 7.9 percent higher in nominal terms as compared to the same period of the last year, and by 0.6 percent as share in the GDP.

“Increases were recorded compared to the same period of the previous year at collections from: income tax (+13.3 percent), VAT (+11.8 percent), non-fiscal revenues and profit tax (+11.2 percent) and excises (+7.4 percent). The revenues from social insurance contributions have decreased only by 1.8 percent as compared to the last year, being influenced by the 5 percent cut of the contributions paid by employers and by the 0.5 percent growth on 2015 of the contribution share to the 2nd pensions’ pillar.
At the local administrations’ level, increases were recorded against the previous year at property taxes and dues by 2.1 percent, taxes on the goods’ utilization by 4 percent and non-fiscal revenues by 2.4 percent,” the release shows.

The general budget expenditure, amounting to RON 182.6 billion have increased in nominal terms by 4 percent as compared to the similar period of 2014, yet it went down by 0.4 percent as GDP share.

A significant reduction was recorded for the interest expenses (-10.2 percent) due to the payments seasonality and the decline in yields on government securities.

In parallel, a significant increase of 36 percent is to be noticed, over the same period last year of expenses incurred for projects financed from external grants, MFP reports. The investment expenses, including capital expenditure, and the related development programs funded from internal and external sources, were worth RON 22.7 billion, 3.2 percent of the GDP, respectively, in nominal terms by 11.6 percent higher than in the same period of 2014.