Lisbon, July 31, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese State recorded a deficit of €213 million in the first half of the year, representing a decrease of €2.230.4 billion compared with the same period last year, it was announced.
«The overall general government balance, year-on-year, fell by €2.230.4 billion, which was due to the performance of the central government balance, which decreased by €3.668.4 billion (€2.300.8 billion excluding the effect of payments to settle National Health Service (SNS) debts),» according to the budget implementation summary published on Friday by the Budget Authority (formerly the DGO – Directorate-General for the Budget).
In June, the State thus recorded a deficit of €213 million.
According to the document, the other sub-sectors performed well during the period under review, given the improvement in the balances of Social Security (+€1.015.5 billion), Local Government (+€358.8 million) and Regional Government (+€63.6 million).
Between January and June, the overall and primary balances of Central Government and Social Security stood at €1.147.8 billion and €2.893.2 billion respectively, representing decreases of €2.652.8 billion and €2.216.3 billion respectively.
In Regional Government, the balance was negative at €128.7 million, equivalent to a year-on-year increase of €63.6 million.
As for Local Government, the balance stood at €1.063.9 billion, €358.8 million higher than in the same period of the previous year.
In the first half of the year, consolidated expenditure rose by 11.3% and primary expenditure by 11.2%.
«Excluding the effect of payments to settle National Health Service (SNS) debts and actual expenditure under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), expenditure rose by 7.6% and primary expenditure by 7.3%, driven in particular by the trend in current transfers, notably pension costs and the financial contribution to the European Union budget», it explained.
In particular, staff costs rose by 6.3%, largely due to wage increases, such as that of civil servants' salaries and the guaranteed minimum monthly wage.
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