Positive messages from the January’s primary surplus
In another year of powerful fiscal performance, the Greek economy, as the state budget execution data pretend in January 2025.
Following the significant overrun of the primary surplus in 2024, which is expected to reach 3% of GDP, the first indications for 2025 are optimistic that the course of the positive overruns of the budgetary targets will continue creating a wide -ended financial space to unlock the new taxpayers. These are changes that are designed to reduce tax burden on consistent middle class taxpayers.
Changes are expected to be finalized in the coming months on the basis of the course of this year’s budget, after taking into account the particularly significant fiscal service of 2024. Based on these two data, the range of fiscal space will be finalized for tax cuts. That is why the significant performance of January creates optimism at the Ministry of Finance, at a time when the new evaluation of the Greek economy is already underway by institutions at the level of technical scales.
In particular, the January primary surplus excessed by EUR 600 million from the budget target. This performance was contributed by the € 400 million of public revenue.
Thus, the January primary surplus amounted to € 2 billion against a target for a surplus of € 1.4 billion. In the same period, revenue amounted to € 5,974 billion, showing an increase of 7.3% against the target, reported to the EIA.
It is recalled that, based on the state’s general accounting data, the primary surplus of 2024 stood at € 12.07 billion at more than twice as much as 2023 (€ 5.49 billion). Although the final figures for 2024 are expected to be finalized at the end of February, the Treasury estimates that the 2024 primary surplus will reach 3% of GDP against an initial target of 2.5% of GDP.
In addition to the high growth rates of the Greek economy, a significant contribution to the overrun of public revenue and the primary surplus, have measures against tax evasion. In 2024, as announced by Finance Minister Hatzidakis, tax evasion revenue amounted to 2 billion euros. These are additional revenue resulting mainly from the expansion of electronic transactions and the connection of the cash registers to POS that brought to the surface undeclared income. For this year, the goal is to revenue from tax evasion to exceed 3 billion euros.
On the surface undeclared income
It is indicative that last year, due to these measures, the value of electronic transactions increased by EUR 6.6 billion, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Finance.
These are additional revenue of professionals and businesses that came to the surface and concern important sectors such as taxi, car washing machines, workshops, legal and medical services (doctors and dentists). In the taxi sector, electronic transactions reached EUR 79 million from € 26 million in 2023. In car washing machines, declared revenue amounted to EUR 80.2 million versus EUR 11.2 million in 2023. Legal services (lawyers) amounted to EUR 45 million versus EUR 11.3 million. Dentists increased to EUR 248 million versus EUR 206 million in 2023 and to doctors to EUR 391 million versus EUR 356 million.
