Greece’s Jan-June primary budget surplus beats govt forecast

Greece recorded a central government primary budget surplus of 2.116 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in the January-to-June period thanks to higher tax revenues, finance ministry data showed on Monday.

The government had targeted a primary budget deficit – which excludes debt-servicing costs, social security and local administration budgets – of 415 million euros for the first half of the year.

Budget revenues came in at 30.87 billion euros in the six-month period, outperforming the government’s target by 1.2 billion euros, the data showed.

Spending came to 33.33 billion euros, 596 million euros less than the government’s target.
Source: Reuters Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Hugh Lawson