Ljubljana, 31 January (STA) - Slovenia posted a budget surplus of EUR 537m or 1.2% of GDP for 2018 compared to a deficit of 0.8% of GDP in the year before, as revenue was buoyed by high tax receipts as well as one-off items such as bank dividends to significantly outpace expenditure growth.
Revenue rose by more than 13% over the year before to EUR 10bn, largely due to a doubling of receipts from the EU budget and dividends from NLB bank that exceeded EUR 270m, show preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry on Thursday.
But tax revenue also surged on the back of brisk economic growth: at EUR 8.25bn, it was almost 7% higher than in 2017, mostly due to a 7% increase in VAT, which accounts for roughly 45% of all tax revenue.
Expenditure grew at a much slower pace, rising by 3.4% to EUR 9.46bn, as higher public sector wages were partially offset by savings produced with deleveraging, which resulted in lower interest payment on the national debt.