The budget deficit stood at 3.7 billion dinars at the end of November 2019, against 3.8 billion dinars in 2018, according to the budget execution document recently published by the Ministry of Finance.
For the whole year 2019, the Finance Department is counting on a budget of around 4 billion dinars, which represents 3.5% of GDP.
This deficit has been financed mainly by net external financing (1.7 billion dinars) and net domestic financing (1.5 billion dinars), but also, in part, by income from confiscated assets (0.3 billion dinars) and donations (0.1 billion dinars).
The budget document reports a 14.9% increase in State revenue, rising from 33 billion dinars in November 2018 to 37.9 billion dinars in November 2019, mainly due to the increase in the State’s own revenue by 16.2% (more specifically, tax revenue (+15.5%) and borrowing resources by 23%.
On the expenditure side, the Ministry of Finance posted an increase of 14.9%, during the period from November 2018 to November 2019, to 37.8 billion dinars.
This increase is explained, essentially, by the increase in management expenditure by 24.7%, to 22.3 billion dinars, due to the rise in expenditure dedicated to salaries by 13.7% (to 15.3 billion dinars), as well as those reserved for social interventions by 66.7% (to about 6 billion dinars).
It is also explained by the increase in the value of the budget dedicated to the repayment of the principal of the debt by 31.8%, to 6.2 billion dinars in November 2019, from 4.7 billion dinars a year earlier.
