The General Government surplus increased to €547,1 mn or 2.5% of GDP between January and April 2019, compared with a surplus of €426,9 mn or 2.1% of GDP in the same period of 2018, according to the preliminary fiscal results published by the Statistical Service of Cyprus on Friday.
Total expenditure in the first four months of 2019 increased by €100,2 mn (+4.8%) compared with the same period of 2018 and reached €2.189,6 mn (€2.089,4 mn in 2018).
The compensation of employees (including imputed social contributions and pensions of civil servants) recorded the biggest increase with €48,4 mn and reached €787,0 mn in January-April 2019 compared with €738,6 mn in January-April 2018.
Intermediate consumption increased by €35,7 mn and reached €216,8 mn in the first four-months of 2019 from €181,1 mn in the same period of last year. Current transfers also registered an increase of 19.4% or €30,8 mn and reached €189,2 mn from €158,4 mn in 2018.
A smaller increase of €11,5 mn was recorded in social benefits, reaching €830,8 mn from €819,3 mn in 2018, and subsidies, which increased by €2,4 mn to reach €14,8 mn from €12,4 mn in January-April 2018. Payable interest increased by €1,4 mn and reached €94,0 mn compared with €92,6 mn in 2018.
The remaining two expenditure categories, that concern capital, registered a decrease. Investment was down by €26,6 mn and stood at €43,3 mn compared with €69,9 mn in the period of January-April 2018. Capital transfers also decreased by 3,4 mn to total €13,7 mn from €17,1 mn in 2018.
Total revenue increased by 8.8%, that is €220,4 mn, to reach €2.736,7 mn during the period of January-April 2019 (€2.516,3 mn in the corresponding period of 2018).
An important increase was recorded by the capital transfers received by the State, which were increased by €78,5 mn and reached €133,0 mn (€54,5 mn in 2018).
Moreover, taxes on income and wealth increased by €68,6 mn (+12,9%) and reached €599,7 mn in January-April 2019 compared with €531,1 mn received during the corresponding period of 2018.
Social contributions collected by the State during the period of January-April 2019 increased by 9.1% (or €54,2 mn) to reach €650,9 mn (€596,7 mn during the first four months of 2018), and property income recorded a €35,4 mn increase to register an income of €83,0 mn during the same period (compared with €47,6 mn in January-April of 2018).
On the contrary, revenue for the sale of goods and services recorded a decrease of €12,1 mn and were confined to €152,9 mn during the period of January-April of the current year, since this revenue totaled €165,0 mn during the corresponding period of last year.
A small reduction amounting to €2,3 mn (-0.2%) was recorded by the revenue received from taxes on production and imports, which amounted to €1.062,4 mn during the first four months of 2019. However, net VAT revenue registered an increase of €8,0 mn and reached €690,9 mn in 2019, compared with €682,9 mn received in 2018.
Finally, current transfers received were decreased slightly by €1,9 mn and stood at €54,8 mn during the first four months of 2019.
(Cyprus News Agency)
