"In 2021 the general government deficit in public accounting improved by 2,862 million euros compared to 2020, reducing it to 8,794 million euros," explains the ministry headed by João Leão in a statement, in anticipation of the Budget Execution Summary of the General Directorate of the Budget (DGO).

This development is the result of a growth in revenue of 9.3 percent more than the growth in expenditure of 5.2 percent.

"The significant improvement in revenue results from the strong recovery of the economy and in particular of employment. The growth of expenditure results from the impact of extraordinary measures to support the economy and the strong growth of expenditure on the National Health Service (NHS)," the Ministry of Finance said.

The data published by the government is from a public accounting perspective, which differs from national accounting, traditionally used by institutions to assess the budget balance by Brussels, based on data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).