Greek budget deficit down 37 percent in 2010

Greece's central budget deficit shrank by 37 percent in 2010, better than the projected target of 33.2 percent, the Finance Ministry announced Thursday.

In 2010, Greece's deficit stood at 19.45 billion euros (about 26.18 billion U.S. dollars), compared to 30.871 billion euros in 2009.

The deficit reduction was largely due to shrinking expenditures, with ordinary budget expenditures declining 9.1 percent year-on- year against the expected 7.5 percent.

State budget revenues increased by about 7.4 percent. Net revenues of the ordinary budget increased by 5.5 percent against the target of 6 percent and investment budget revenues increased by 50.6 percent against the expected 41.7 percent.

The figures show that Greece is on the right track to fulfill pledges made to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last May to slash a budget deficit which rose to 15.4 percent of GDP in late 2009.

Source: Xinhua