OE2026: INE today discloses 1st quarter budget balance

Com the disclosure of quarterly national accounts by institutional sector by the INE will be known the evolution of the balance of the public accounts until March, at a time when the government has already revised the estimates for the whole year for a zero balance.

From the perspective of public accounting, the State recorded a surplus of EUR 209 million by March, with a decrease of EUR 1,399.1 million, mainly justified by the balance of the Central and Regional Administration, according to the summary of budgetary implementation.

The balance established by the INE differs from that of the Budgetary Entity (EO), since it is in national accounts (which is for the European institutions), which means that it is calculated taking into account a logic of commitment of revenue and expenditure.

The coordinator of the NECEP – Católica Lisbon Forecasting Lab, João Borges de Asuncion, stressed to Lusa that the budget balance to be disclosed by the INE, and which is more robust to interpret, “is calculated on an annual average, so the direct comparison with the surplus of 209 million recorded by the EO by March in public accounting requires a double methodological caution, even though the signal should be of a similar nature”.

“ The budgetary costs of storms will hardly be visible in the data of the first quarter, so the result in national accounts should reflect, above all, the consolidation trajectory that has characterized Portuguese public finances, corrected operations and adjustments that sometimes occur in the double years ", signaled.

Among the indicators that will be known today is also the rate of household savings.