Wall Street Journal
September 12, 2011
Loyal Readers will be aware of our longstanding obsession with monthly Greek budget reports.
Another one’s out today, so let’s dive right in!
The Greek finance ministry reports that the state budget deficit was €18.10 billion in the first eight months of 2011, ahead of its target of €18.97 billion.
But the numbers also make plain that Greece faces a huge struggle to meet its goals for the entire year.
Here’s why.
This chart is a bit difficult to read, but it shows Greece’s cumulative state budget deficit through the course of the year. The blue line is the target,the red line is the actual accumulated deficit figure. (The state budget deficit, which is what we’re talking about in this post, includes most functions of the central government, though not social security. It accounts for the bulk of Greece’s overall spending and revenue. The more commonly cited deficit figure is the overall deficit, but Greece doesn’t break that out each month.)
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