Improved fiscal performance was on a 1.5% increase in revenue last year to over €7bn, accompanied by a 2.4% drop in spending to below €7bn, Cystat said in a statement on its website recently.

The government posted a fiscal surplus of €146.3m in the first quarter and a deficit of €188.7m from April to June, Cystat said. In the third and fourth quarters, the budget produced a surplus of €185.8m and a deficit of €79m respectively.

In 2015 and 2014, when the government had posted fiscal shortfalls of €208.9m and €1.5bn, or 1.2% and 8.8% respectively, it was mainly on capital assistance extended to the Cooperative banking sector.
Until October, the government was expecting to generate a fiscal deficit of 0.3% of the economy last year.

According to a Eurostat statement published also on Monday, Cyprus was among the best fiscal achievers in the 19-member currency bloc last year. Luxembourg generated the largest fiscal surplus of 1.6% of gross domestic product, followed by Malta with 1%, Germany and Greece with 0.8% and 0.7% respectively. The Netherlands also generated a fiscal deficit of 0.4%.

Source: Cyprus Mail