Primary budget surplus climbs to 7.4 billion in first 11 months of 2016

The primary budget surplus of the year's first 11 months climbed to 7.4 billion euros, due to the overperformance of revenues and the containment of expenditure, according to figures released on Thursday by the Finance Ministry.

The surplus recorded is 3.8 billion euros higher than its target for the year to end-November and unless something unexpected happens on the spending side by the end of the fiscal year, it will exceed 1 percent of gross domestic product.

It appears the ministry had underestimated the collection of revenues from certain sources, such as the income tax from taxpayers and corporations.

In total the net revenues of the state budget amounted to 47.94 billion euros, posting an increase of 1.5 billion, or 3.2 percent, compared to the target for this year included in the 2017 budget. Taxpayers paid 144 million euros more in income tax, corporate...