A positive surprise for Greece’s public finances came to light on Monday, as according to the latest official data, the country’s revenues were €287 million higher than expected in August, despite recently-introduced tax cuts.
More specifically, between August 1 and 31, 2019, the budget’s net revenue was 4.539 billion euros, an increase of 287 million euros compared to the target.
This came as a surprise primarily because August’s revenue was predicted to be lower than the targeted numbers.
This was due to the fact that a series of tax cuts introduced both by the previous and the current administrations came into effect on August 1.
However, tax revenues were actually much higher than had been anticipated, and government spending was lower than expected as well.
According to the Greek Ministry of Finance, net revenue totaled 33.127 billion euros in the period from January-August, which was up by 7.9 percent compared to official targets for the same period.
If this positive trend continues for the rest of the year, the Greek government does not exclude the possibility of introducing additional tax cuts or one-time payments to citizens at the end of the year.
This type of refund could resemble the so-called ”social dividend,” which the previous administration gave out to Greek citizens at the end of every year since 2016.
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