Public sector surplus of €1.1B in H1, from year-ago deficit of €8.4B

  • Lusa
  • 27 July 2022

The country's public sector reported a surplus of €1.113 billion in the first half of this year, representing an improvement of €8.429 billion compared to the same period last year.

Portugal had a public sector surplus of €1.113 billion in the first half of this year, in public accounting terms, representing an improvement of €8.429 billion from the deficit recorded in the first six months of 2021, Ministry of Finance figures show.

“The budget execution of the General Government, in public accounting, recorded a surplus of 1,113 ME [million euros] in the first half of 2022, showing an improvement of 8,429 ME compared to the same period of 2021, a time when economic activity was strongly affected by a general lockdown,” said the ministry in a statement released late on Tuesday, in advance of the summary of budget execution from the Directorate-General of Budget (DGO).

Compared with the first half of 2019, a period when economic activity was not yet affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a less significant improvement, of €1.767 billion, it adds.

The data now released by the government are in public accounting terms, which differs from the national accounting basis traditionally used by European Union institutions to assess the budget balance, based on data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).