Budget deficit rises to 158 mln dollars

TIRANA, May 19 – Government’s budget deficit rose to a record – 15.8 billion lek (158 million dollars) in the first four months of this electoral year, up from around -12 billion lek a year ago mainly because of higher expenditure and a slowdown in total revenues.
Finance Ministry data show total revenues in the first four months of 2011 reached 103.7 billion lek, registering a slight decrease of 0.7 percent compared to the same period in 2010. The situation was a result of lower tax revenues which in the first four months of this year dropped by 5 billion lek to 94.6 billion lek.
Government revenues during the first quarter of 2011 remained almost unchanged to the same period a year ago increasing by only 362 million lek to 77.5 billion lek. Meanwhile, expenditure rose by 15 percent to 89.3 billion lek, up from around 76.5 billion lek in March 2010. The biggest increase was observed in the current expenditure indicator which rose from 62.4 billion lek in March 2010 to 69.7 billion lek in March 2011, mainly due to higher wages and pensions since July 2010.
Ministry’s preliminary data show the budget deficit more than halved to -37 billion lek compared to a record – 80.3 billion lek at the end of 2009, taking the deficit to 3.1 percent of the GDP, down from a record 7.4 percent.
With budget revenues expected to grow by 11 percent, 2 percent more than under the revised 2010 budget, government projects the Albanian economy will grow by 5.5 percent in 2011, up from an estimated 4.1 percent in 2010, which is almost twice higher compared to what international financial institutions expect.