“Looking at the quarterly values and not the year ending in the quarter, The AP balance in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to -118.9 million euros, equivalent to -0.2% of GDP, compared to 1.1% in the same period last year.. Compared to the same period of the previous year, there was an increase of 7.3% in revenues and 11.0% in expenditures,” says the National Institute of Statistics.
“The value of the capital injection and debt assumption in the first quarter of 2024 has been fully allocated to the entities
Public administration sector, without affecting the total balance“, says the institute in publishing the first quarter data.
By the end of the year, the government still plans to achieve a surplus of 0.3%.
The institute says that the balance of the Portuguese economy rose to 3.2% of GDP in the first quarter of 2024 (2.7% in the previous quarter).
The increase in subsidies results mainly from the additional allocation of funds to the national electricity system to reduce electricity tariffs.
The 7.1% growth in current revenue reflects increases in all its components. Taxes on income and assets, on production and imports, social contributions, sales and other current revenues rose by 6.4%, 6.1%, 9.7%, 3.5%, and 6.0%, respectively.
Forecasts and alerts
These statements by the Minister of Finance came after warnings from the Central Bank of Portugal about the possibility of the deficit returning to deficit due to measures affecting the budget Such as tax deductions and salary negotiations in public administration.
