While the Ministry of Economy is already entrusting the other portfolios to prepare their spending forecasts for next year, with the idea of to put together a 2024 Budget with a zero deficit, this year, the rule was to exceed the limits that the norm had set for it.
Through simple administrative decisions, based on powers delegated by Congress to the Executive Branch, the Government disposed of an additional expenditure of $506,306 million to that authorized.
Nearly half of this additional spending was formalized with an administrative decision, 631, which increased the total budget of the National Administration by $235,114 million. and the calculation of resources at $225,604 million, increasing the financial deficit by a total of $9,509 million, according to the analysis of the Congressional Budget Office (OPC).
The largest expenses were materializing on January 22, $52,328 million; on March 29, $48,751 million; on May 2, $22,347 million; on June 1, $15,212 million; on July 5, the primary deficit increases by $73,903 million and the financial deficit by $73,907 million; and on August 1, $9,509 million.
Notwithstanding this increase in accrued, the real expense that is used to present to the IMF marks a real annual drop of 5% in the first semester. According to private consultants, in the second half of 2023 it should fall 13% to achieve the goal of 1.9% of the deficit this year.
As reported by the Palacio de Hacienda, over the weekend, Sergio Massa will send Congress a 2024 budget with a zero deficit, a proposal similar to that of the economists of Together for Change. The question, as raised in a minute of the economic team meeting last Friday, is that they will seek to cut tax spending. It is about gradually eliminating tax benefits that certain economic and social sectors have, either because it is determined by the law that creates the taxes, or because they are the consequence of incentive programs.
Meanwhile, a report from the Latin American Economic Research Foundation (FIEL) indicates that “the Non-Financial Public Sector (SPNF) has accumulated a primary deficit of 2.8% of GDP, 0.6 points of GDP higher than that of same period last year.
This deterioration was influenced by both the loss of export rights (0.9% of GDP) as well as the fall in income from property income (0.6% of GDP), the latter concept being challenged by the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, on the spending side, the construction of the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline prompted a 0.4% rise in GDP in capital outlays.
One element to take into account is whether, once the candidates for the national elections in October are defined, there will be an agreement between the political forces to maintain or eliminate in the 2024 Budget Law, the powers that the Executive Branch has to redefine items and increase expenditures, which makes the law merely declarative.
Source: Ambito
