Τhe General Government recorded a fiscal surplus of €386.9 m (1.9% of GDP) in the first five months of the year, compared to a surplus of €115.9 m in the corresponding period of 2017 (0.6% of GDP), according to preliminary estimates of the Statistical Service of Cyprus.
Cystat reported that total expenditure between January-May 2018 recorded an increase of €55.9 m (+2,1%) compared to the corresponding period of 2017 and reached €2.6862 b (€2.6303 b in 2017).
The compensation of employees (including imputed social contributions and pensions of civil servants) increased by €33.6m (+3.8%) to reach €919.0 m(€885.4 m in 2017). Social benefits registered an increase of €39.9 m (+4.0%) to reach €1.0406 b (as opposed to €1.0007 b in 2017) and current transfers increased by €6.1 m to reach €198.4 m (€192.3 m in 2017). An increase was also recorded by capital transfers (€7.4 m) that reached €23.3 m (€15.9 m in 2017). Subsidies recorded a small increase of €1.4 m to reach €16.2 m.
The remaining expenditure categories decreased compared to the expenditure amounts of the first five months of 2017. Payable interest recorded a decrease of €15.4 m and was reduced to €157.4 m, while investments were decreased by €13.7 m recording an expenditure of €95.5 m. Excluding land annexations, that are included in investments, this decrease is reduced to €7.7 m.
Finally, intermediate consumption was reduced by €3.4 m compared to the corresponding expenditure of last year (€2.358 b in 2018 from €2.392 b in 2017).
Total revenue increased by 11.9% or €326.9 m, to €3.0731 b during the first five months of 2018 (€27462 b in the corresponding months of 2017).
All revenue categories, except from the category of property income, showed an increase during the period of January-May 2018.
Taxes on production and imports registered a 17.2% increase from 2017, that is an increase of €189.9 m (€12965 b in 2018 against €1.1066 b in 2017), of which net VAT revenue increased by 26.1%, which corresponds to €169.0 m, and reached a total of €817.2 m (in comparison to €648.2 m in 2017).
Social contributions collected during this period increased by 9,9% (or €67.9 m) and reached €756.5 m (as compared to €688,6 m in January-May 2017). Revenue from taxes on income and wealth increased by €58,1 m or 10.4% and reached €619.1 m during the first five months of 2018 in comparison to €561.0 m in 2017, while current transfers received increased by €14.0 m and reached €80.7 m.
An important increase of €31.4 m was recorded in capital transfers received by the State during this period, that reached €55.6 m (€24.2 m during January-May 2017).
Revenue from the sale of goods and services increased slightly by €1.0 m and totalled €199.6 m.
Finally, property income, the only category that saw a decrease, was reduced to €65.1 m during the period of January-May 2018 (€100.5 m in 2017).
