In June, the fiscal deficit reached 681,900 million colones (2.2% out of GDP) and interest payments were 413,000 million colones (1.4% out of GDP), a situation that worries the executive branch.
Helio Fallas, minister of Finance and vice president of Costa Rica, stated that this case should be studied because it is increasingly common for this area to absorb efforts aiming to reduce the fiscal deficit.
The results also show a difference of 7.4% between income increase and expenditure.
By the end of June, revenues had a favorable performance. Within this category it is important to mention incomes and profits’ tax which had a 15.8% revenue improvement and tax on general sales, that had an increase of 8.1%.
As for expenses, running costs are highlighted, including salaries that by the end of June grew just 1.7%. On the other hand, goods and services decreased 6.7%. Within this category are included consultancies, materials and supplies, cleaning services, security, and rentals.
The minister added that next year debt service will be the most important thing in this category which is expected to be more than 30% of the total budget. The only option for Costa Rica to stabilize the debt is through the approval of projects to strengthen public finance.