Inflation causes tax revenue grow more rapidly than budget expenditures in Latvia

The Ministry of Finance reports that data from the State Treasury indicates that in 11 months of 2022 the budget balance improved by nearly a half – by EUR 432 million.
In the same period of 2021 the budget deficit was EUR 600 million. This improvement mainly came from an increase of general budget revenue, which was more rapid that general budget expenditures. Tax revenue rise came from the surplus in the state special budget – EUR 349.5 million – and in the municipalities budget – EUR 235.8 million.
General budget revenue was EUR 12.9 billion, which is EUR 1.5 billion or 12.6% higher when compared with the eleven months of 2021.

Higher revenue came from higher economic activity at the start of the year, as well as the rapidly growing price level for all forms of goods and services.

Revenue rise was observed in nearly all positions – tax revenue and revenue from paid services have increased by 15.2%, non-tax revenue, when compared with eleven months of 2021, has increased by 10.1%.
Increase is observed for labour tax revenue, which already exceeds last year’s numbers by nearly a quarter. According to data from the State Revenue Service, the labour pay fund’s increase in ten months of 2023 was close to 12% even though the number of employed people did not change by much.
VAT revenue went up by a lot in eleven months of 2022. This is is mostly due to growing taxes paid in the trade sector, which was, in turn, caused by growing consumer prices and domestic consumption. This year the average price level was 21.8% higher when compared with 2021. The rapidly increasing energy prices caused higher tax revenue in electricity, gas supply and heating sectors.
Also read: Latvian Traders Association reports price rise is mostly over