Public administrations posted a surplus of 2.8% of GDP through the end of September, a marked improvement year-on-year, and a much more positive balance than the deficit projected by the government for the year as a whole.

to me National accounts by institutional sector Released on Friday, December 23 by the National Statistical Institute, In the first three quarters of 2022, the general government balance amounted to 4,980 million euros, which corresponds to a budget surplus of 2.8% of GDP.

This value is compared to the deficit of 2.5% of GDP (3,891 million euros) recorded in the same period of 2021, which indicates a significant improvement year on year.

At the same time, the surplus recorded in the first three quarters of the year was much better than the 1.9% deficit that Finance Minister Fernando Medina inserted into the state budget – but also the figure recently indicated by the Prime Minister that expects the deficit for the year as a whole to be no more than 1.5%.

According to the data of the National Institute of Statistics, and looking at the accumulated result of the first three quarters of the year, the marked improvement in the balance is due to a significant increase in the revenues of the general administration, by 11.6% (about 8 billion euros), at the same time. That spending decreased by 1.1% (almost a billion).

In terms of public revenue, it is necessary to highlight the income growth of 28.3% in taxes on income and assets (the IRS and the International Rescue Committee, for example) and 15.7% in taxes on production and imports (including value-added tax). Looking at taxes alone, public administrations collected about 7.8 billion euros by September this year compared to the same period last year.

The big difference in spending is in subsidies. Until September 2021, due largely to the Corona virus, public administrations spent about 3.8 billion euros on this item, in the same period this year, this spending decreased by 71.5%.

Also of note is the 9.8% reduction in interest expense. In the first nine months of this year, the country spent about 400 million less on public debt fees than in the same months of 2021.

Looking at only the third quarter, the surplus was even more significant, at 6.8% of GDP (practically twice the 3.5% of GDP recorded in the same period). Looking at the year ending in the third quarter (and therefore the period between October 2021 and September 2022), the budget balance was also positive, at 1.1% of GDP, an improvement of 0.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

(News updated at 11:45 with more information)