Portugal reports progress in cutting deficit

(PARIS) - The Portuguese government on Monday reported progress in cutting its budget deficit, with a 7.2 percent drop in expenses and a six percent gain in tax revenue over the first five months of this year.

The finance ministry said the state budget deficit had shrunk by over half to stand at 2.1 billion euros.

Taking into account a surplus of 743 million in the social security budget, the five-month deficit was down by 89 percent from the same period last year to 285 million euros.

The ministry did not provide information on local budgets, which would allow calculating the overall public sector deficit.

As part of its 78-billion-euro ($112-billion) EU-IMF bailout package Portugal pledged to reduce its public sector deficit from 9.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year to 5.9 percent this year.