Tax revenue in August much better than expected, finance ministry sources say

"Tax revenues in August were much better than anticipated. They reached the revenue of the initial forecast of the state budget in 2020 and were 400 million euros more than the updated monthly estimates included in the Stability Programme," Alternate Finance Minister Theodoros Skylakakis said on Wednesday.

Presenting the budget execution data, Skylakakis said: "This performance obviously has some periodic characteristics. It does not change our estimate for lower revenues in the next months, but it is a ray of optimism in a difficult period".

The finance ministry noted an improvement in the course of the economic recession and it is expected to reach final conclusions in October and November. Ministry sources reiterated that forecasts over economic recession this year remained unchanged. The same sources, however, did not exclude additional measures to deal with the problems created by localised restrictive measures imposed in some regions to deal with the pandemic. The finance ministry also maintains the same forecasts over the country's fiscal deficit and reiterated that the goal is to have a balance budget in 2021 and to return to primary surpluses from 2022.