Greek central govt surplus misses January target due to tax delays

Reuters
February 12, 2015

Greece's central government fell far short of a targeted budget surplus in January because of a 1 billion euro shortfall in tax revenues as Greeks held off tax payments ahead of an election on Jan.25, the finance ministry said on Thursday.

The central government surplus excludes the budgets of social security organisations and local administrations and is different from the figure monitored by Athens's EU/IMF lenders, but indicates the country's progress in repairing its finances.

The surplus came in at 443 million euros in January, well short of the 1.37 billion euro projection in Greece's latest budget. Tax revenues fell by 1.05 billion eurors to 3.49 billion euros in January, 23 percent below the target of 4.54 billion euros, the ministry said.

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