ROME: Italy posted a state sector budget surplus of 15 billion euros in December 2013, up from a surplus of 13.4 billion euros in the same month a year earlier, the finance ministry said on Thursday.
But the total for 2013 was a deficit of 79.7 billion euros, a worsening from 2012's 49.5 billion euro deficit, due to what the finance ministry called "extraordinary operations" including paying off public debt to companies and aiding troubled lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
The December surplus was due to an increase in tax revenues and sales of state-owned real estate as well as cuts to government expenditure, the statement said.
The state sector borrowing requirement (SSBR), a measure of the gap between central government spending and income, differs from the broader "general government" accounts, which the European Union Stability and Growth Pact refers to when assessing countries' deficit performances.
The government is targeting the 2013 general government deficit just in line with the European Union's deficit ceiling of 3.0 percent.
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