Iceland sees decrease in general gov't deficit in Q3

Iceland's government saw its financial balance decrease to a 4.1-billion-Icelandic krona (31.8 million U.S. dollars) deficit in the third quarter of 2015, down from a 5.5-billion-Icelandic-krona deficit in the same period of 2014, Statistics Iceland said on Friday.

The total revenue of the general government, which includes income from the central government, social security funds, and local governments, amounted to 228 billion Icelandic krona in the third quarter of 2015, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year.

At the same time, the total expenditure increased by 4.3 percent, from 222.7 billion Icelandic krona in 2014 to about 232.1 billion Icelandic krona in 2015, mainly due to increase in compensation of employees.

The central government's net financial asset position decreased by 4.5 billion Icelandic krona between the third quarters of 2014 and 2015, said the report. (1 U.S. dollar = 129 Icelandic krona) Endit