Wednesday, April 25, 2012
- State Budget Execution
According to data available for the execution of the State Budget for the first three months of 2012 (January-March), on a modified cash basis, the State Budget deficit amounted to € 7,278 million, a significant improvement relative to the target deficit of € 8,596 million set in the 2012 Supplementary Budget, the Finance Ministry announced on April 20. During the same period, the State Budget primary deficit amounted to € 333 million, notably better than the € 1,399 million primary deficit required to be in line with targets.
State Budget net revenues amounted to € 12,840 million, performing slightly below the target set in the 2012 Supplementary Budget (€ 12,975 million) by € 135 million.
- Current Account Deficit Down 44.1% in Jan-Feb 2012
Greece's current account balance deficit shrank by 44.1% in the first two months of 2012, helped by rising exports and lower spending on fuel imports, the Bank of Greece said on April 19.
In its monthly report, the Bank of Greece said that the country's external deficit decreased to € 2.5 billion at the end of February, from € 4.5 billion in the corresponding period in 2011. In February, the current account balance showed a deficit of € 1.1 billion, down by € 781 million, or 41.6% year-on-year.
- Greek Inflation 2nd Lowest in the EU in March
Greece reported the second lowest inflation rate among European Union countries in March 2012, Eurostat has revealed.
The EU executive's statistics service, in a report published on April 17, said that the inflation rate was 2.7% in the Eurozone in March, unchanged from February, while in the EU-27 the inflation rate was also unchanged at 2.9%. Greece with 1.4%, along with Sweden (1.1%) and Bulgaria (1.7%) recorded the lowest inflation rates in March, while Hungary (5.5%), Estonia (4.7%) and the Czech Republic (4.2%) had the highest rates. On an average annual basis Greek inflation was 2.4% in March, 2012.
