Shrink of deficit showed Greek in the first quarter of 2025 economyat the forefront of increased tax revenue, compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
ELSTAT data confirm the limitation of the deficit, mainly through the significant reinforcement of tax revenue and in particular those related to consumption.
Specifically, the increase in total revenue of the General Government amounted to EUR 3.01 billion or almost 14%, to € 24.87 billion compared to € 21.86 billion in the first quarter of 2024.
Most of these around € 3 billion is attributed to taxes and imports, which amounted to € 9.37 billion (from 7.74 billion), recording 21% or almost 1.63 billion euros.
Product taxes, namely VAT and excise taxes, have continued to pay strong, reinforced both by increasing consumer expenditure and inflation. At the same time, other categories were increased, such as production taxes, social contributions and income taxes, composing a wide range of collecting stimulation.
More specifically, the increase in income and property tax (+0.68 billion), social contributions (+0.23 billion) and capital transfers (+0.42 billion) was significant.
In contrast, stability in total government spending, which remained almost unchanged, stood at EUR 25.39 billion versus EUR 25.37 billion in the first quarter of 2024, a change of only € 16 million, coupled with a significant increase in tax revenue, allowed € 1,37. billion euros, that is, improvement of EUR 2.92 billion. Correspondingly, the final budget balance (after paying interest) improved from a € 3.52 billion deficit to just € 0.52 billion, ie almost € 3 billion in one year.
Although the result is in a positive direction, there are no reflections on its viability and a fair weight distribution as the increase was largely based on indirect taxes, such as VAT and EFK, which are disproportionate to the lower incomes, and they should be increasing.
It should be noted that the debate on indirect taxes, and in particular the VAT rates of our country, including Member States, is also of concern to Brussels. Just last week, the Commission sent a warning letter to Athens, calling on it to adapt its legislation within two months in accordance with the Community Directive.
The Directive provides for greater flexibility in the use of reduced and overwhelming VAT rates, with the aim of eliminating the burden on basic goods and services. In the five Member States, including our country, the Commission “pulls the ear” as they are controlled because they did not communicate the complete transfer of the directive to their national law, which should have been completed by December 31, 2024, when it was the first quarter of its first quarter. The next period is the change in indirect taxation.