Ljubljana - In the first half of the year, the national budget recorded a EUR 1.946 billion deficit, which is slightly more than in the same period in 2020, when it reached EUR 1.917 billion, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

Contributing the most to the increased deficit was an 18% growth of expenditure, while it was mitigated by a 25.3% growth of revenue.

Revenue in the national budget in the January-June period amounted to EUR 5.39 billion, and increased mostly on the account of tax revenue, which was up by 26% year-on-year.

Non-tax revenue also increased, by 16%, due to EUR 164 million in revenue from the awarded concessions for mobile telephony frequency spectrums in May.

Expenditure in the national budget in the first half of the year stood at EUR 7.337 billion, with costs for employees, subsidies, transfers to individuals and households increasing the most, the ministry said.