TIRANA, Dec.4- Albania ended the first ten months of the year with a budget surplus of 9.02 billion leks ($109.24 million/74.56 million euro) beating its fiscal target thanks to lower than planned spending, Finance Ministry data showed on Monday. Albania has targeted a month-month budget deficit of 15.84 billion leks.
(in billions of Albanian leks):
10-mo’07 9-mo’07 10-mo difference
target with target
TOTAL REVENUE 205.457 181.93 209.42 -4.0
-tax revenue 185.84 164.19 190.26 -4.42
ؖAT 71.72 63.3 71.68 +0.04
ؐrofit tax 16.76 15.21 18.66 -1.89
xcise 23.44 20.79 23.03 +0.41
ؐersonal income tax 11.61 9.91 9.83 +1.78
؎ational taxes 12.2 11.03 13.26 -1.06
ustoms duties 8.19 7.36 8.98 -0.8
-local government revenue 8.53 7.31 10.26 -1.7
-non tax revenue 17.97 16.09 17.96 +0.006
-from social/health insurance 33.38 29.27 34.58 -1.2
TOTAL EXPENDITURE 196.430 171.725 225.265 -28.83
-current expenditure 169.778 150.37 182.705 -12.92
-capital expenditures 26.65 21.35 42.10 -15.45
Following a revision of the 2007 budget bill in July prompted by higher revenue from the sale of the fixed-line monopoly Albtelecom to a Turkish consortium and improved tax collection; Albania cut by 2.9% to 45.4 billion leks its 2007 budget deficit target.
Albania targets a deficit equal to 7.9% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008. The government forecasts economic growth of a real 6.0% and average annual inflation of 3.0% in the 2008 budget bill, the same as this year’s targets. The government projects 283.68 billion leks in budget revenue next year, up by 11.9% from 2007 and equivalent to 26.4% of GDP. Budget spending is projected at 369.03 billion leks, up 12.4% from the current year and equivalent to 34.3% of the planned GDP. (Tirana Times Staff)
