Deficit of NIS 1 billion was measured in August but surplus remained at 0.6% of GDP

In August, a budget deficit of about one billion shekels was measured, but the accumulated budget surplus in the last 12 months remained at 0.6% of GDP. Everything emerges from data published today (Thursday) by the Accountant General of the Ministry of Finance, CPA Yali Rotenberg.

The cumulative surplus since the beginning of the year has dropped to the amount of NIS 34.4 billion - still unprecedented since the state has never had a situation where after eight months there is a surplus of funds in the state budget. What's more, the surplus is about 8% of the annual state budget.
Except for the month of June, in which a budget deficit of NIS 1.5 billion was recorded, and the month of August, in which, as mentioned, a deficit of NIS 1 billion was recorded, since the beginning of the year there have already been six months with a budget surplus, a phenomenon that did not occur until 2022.
At the same time, it should be mentioned that this is a revenue surplus for the current year, but the State of Israel has a debt of more than a trillion shekels on which it pays over 40 billion shekels in interest payments every year which only keep growing.
Since the beginning of the year, the state's revenues have already amounted to 315.7 billion shekels, compared to 265 billion shekels in 2021, when at the beginning of that year there was still the third lockdown resulting from the spread of the corona virus. This is a very significant increase of 19.1% in the collection of state revenues at this time this year.
Government expenditures from the beginning of 2022 reached NIS 282.2 billion, of which only NIS 5.8 billion resulted from expenditures for the economic aid program to deal with the Corona crisis. These expenses represent a reduction of 9.1% compared to the corresponding period last year. Excluding the expenses of the economic aid program, this is an increase of 3.8%. It should be noted that the cumulative performance of the economic aid program for the Corona crisis reached NIS 178.5 billion.
The government's tax revenues in July amounted to NIS 33.9 billion compared to NIS 32.9 billion in the corresponding month last year. Since the beginning of the year, taxes totaling NIS 298.8 billion have been collected.