August’s summary released by the Budget Authority, formerly the Directorate-General for Budget (DGO), showed an improvement of 1,487.1 million euros compared to the same period last year. This progress reflects an 8% increase in revenue, outpacing the 6.1% rise in expenses.
Revenue growth was notably driven by a 9.1% increase in tax revenue, primarily due to the performance of the IRS (16.6%) and VAT (9%), with lesser contributions from IMT (28.8%) and ISP (13.4%). This was partially offset by a decline in IRC (-8%), as explained by the Budget Authority. Additionally, contributory revenue increased by 8.2%.
Non-tax and non-contributory revenue rose by 4.5%, mainly attributed to gains in transfers (10%), fees, fines, and other penalties (6.5%), and property income (10.1%).
On the expenditure side, there were notable increases in transfers (4.9%), personnel costs (9.3%), and investment (17.8%). The rise in investment is linked to projects under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
The public administration balance, published monthly by the Budget Authority, follows public accounting principles, meaning it uses a cash basis (money received and spent), differing from national accounting (accrual basis), which is relevant for European regulations.
