In August 2022, the balance of the state sector closed, provisionally, with a surplus of 650 million, worsening by approximately 8.400 million compared to the corresponding value of August 2021, which closed with a surplus of 9.050 million. Net of the payment of 8.954 million by the EU, collected in August 2021 as an advance of 13% of the non-repayable contributions provided by the Recovery Fund, the balance would show an improvement of approximately 500 million. The borrowing requirement for the first eight months of the current year is approximately 33.700 million, an improvement of approximately 36.400 million compared to that recorded in the corresponding period of last year (70.169 million). On the website of the Department of General State Accounting, the final figure for the balance of the state sector for the month of July 2022 is available.
Comment
In comparison with the corresponding month of 2021, this result is due, in addition to the different scheduling of the transfers of resources to the Recovery Fund, to the positive trend in tax collections whose growth is attributable, in particular, to self-settlement payments, including those relating to ISA subjects that last year had been postponed to September. The positive dynamics of the payments of social contributions, VAT and other indirect taxes continue.
On the payments side, there are: higher withdrawals from the Social Security Institutions for the disbursement of the Single and Universal Check; higher spending by the Central and Territorial Administrations to which the loan to Ukraine of 200 million provided for by Decree-law 50 of 2022 contributes and the transfer of 1.200 million to CSEA for the containment of expensive bills. The disbursement of the residual tranche of the resources provided for by article 4 of Decree-Law 80 of 2022, for the purchase of natural gas for the purposes of storage and subsequent sale.
The interest expenditure on government bonds is slightly down by approximately 150 million compared to the value of the same month of the previous year.