The Ministry of Finance released its figures today on the budget deficit, which has sunk further to reach EUR 655 million in March from the EUR 344 million February figure.
Even so, surprisingly the slump is still an improvement over the same month last year, when in March 2010 it was EUR 983 million.
The government’s austerity measures could therefore be kicking in already, as receipts to the state budget were up 9.6% year-on-year, while expenditures were down 2.5%. The Ministry of Finance projects with a total deficit of EUR 3.8 billion this year.