Finance Ministry: State Budget Deficit Up by almost One Third y-o-y in July

Bratislava, August 1 (TASR) - The state-budget deficit amounted to €4.19 billion at the end of July 2024, the Finance Ministry reported on Thursday, adding that the budgetary performance thus worsened by 34.5 percent, or €1.076 billion year-on-year (y-o-y). State-budget income decreased by €450 million, or by 3.7 percent y-o-y, to €11.586 billion in July. Meanwhile, expenditure rose by €625 million, or 4.1 percent y-o-y, to €15.776 billion. Tax revenues grew by €546.8 million, or 5.6 percent y-o-y. "Positive developments were seen in income from value-added tax, which went up by €88.3 million, withholding tax (up €66.1 million) and excise taxes (up €30.9 million). "A special levy from businesses in regulated branches reached a record-high growth of €282.9 million y-o-y, while a solidarity contribution from activities in the oil, natural gas, coal and refinery sectors fell by €257.8 million," said the ministry. Corporate tax went up by €337.6 million y-o-y in July. Conversely, revenue from personal income tax declined by €7.4 million. The Finance Ministry also recorded a negative development in terms of revenues from the EU budget, going down by €906.7 million or 71.8 percent. The cost of the state debt servicing rose by €141.8 million (22.8 percent) in the seventh month of the year. State-budget expenditure related to drawing EU funds saw a y-o-y increase of €186.3 million (11.4 percent). Meanwhile, expenditure related to drawing money from the Recovery and Resilience Plan declined by €102.4 million y-o-y (-37.2 percent). Payment to the EU budget was €116.4 million (-20.7 percent) lower than last July. ko/mcs