Ljubljana - Slovenia's consolidated general government deficit, including those of the state budget, the health and pension funds and local government budgets, amounted to EUR 2.92 billion or 5.8% of GDP last year, roughly 1.8 percentage points less than a year before, according to the Finance Ministry.

The decline in deficit was due to the growth in revenue outpacing the rise in expenditure. Consolidated general revenue rose to EUR 21.4 billion, an increase of 15.4% from 2020 and up 11.2% from 2019.

Tax revenue rose by 9.3% since 2019. Compared with 2020, personal income tax receipts increased by 14.4% as revenue from corporate income tax rose by 44.2% and the inflow from VAT grew by 19.9%. Revenue from social security contributions was up 8.7%.

Consolidated general government expenditure increased by 10.1% from 2020 and by 28.1% from 2019 to amount to EUR 24.3 billion. Current expenditure increased the most, by 13.8% on 2020, as expenditure for wages increased by 17.3%.

Current transfers rose by 4.2% in a year due to a 11.1% increase in transfers to individuals and households, and a 2.5% rise in transfers to other levels of government. Expenditure for subsidies dropped by 40.2%.

The growth in revenue is attributed mostly to the effect of the Covid-19 mitigation measures. Over a fifth of those were measures to aid businesses and farms (21.6%), nearly a third were measures affecting pay (29.5%) and almost a quarter were measures affecting jobs and contributions (24%).

Investment expenditure and transfers rose by 26.4% from 2020, mainly owing to investments into road and rail infrastructure, healthcare, education and environmental protection and water supply.

According to data released earlier, last year's state budget deficit was just below EUR 3.1 billion or 6.1% of GDP.

Budget revenue amounted to EUR 11.2 billion, up 23.1% from 2020 and up 10.2% from 2019. The increase was mainly due to higher inflow from personal and corporate income tax and VAT.

Meanwhile, expenditure rose by 13.4% in a year to EUR 14.3 billion, mainly as a result of the Covid mitigation measures (EUR 2.8 billion) and investment expenditure (EUR 1.2 billion).

Also according to earlier data, the Health Insurance Institute (ZZZS) generated just over EUR 3.6 billion in revenue in 2021, and EUR 3.5 billion in expenditure for a surplus of EUR 120 million, the highest in 20 years.

The Pension and Disability Insurance Institute (ZPIZ) had its revenue and expenditure levelled at a record EUR 6.2 billion.

The total revenue of municipalities amounted to almost EUR 2.5 billion and expenditure to EUR 2.45 billion. The former figure was up by 7.3% from 2020 and 11.9% higher than in 2019, while expenditure was up 6.8% and 9.3%, respectively.