"By December, the implementation of the measures adopted to combat and prevent Covid-19, as well as those aimed at restoring normality, led to a reduction in revenue of 1,426.1 million Euros and an increase in expenditure of 3,165 million Euros," said the Budgetary Implementation Summary, prepared by the Directorate-General for the Budget (DGO).

At the end of November, the cumulative overall impact of measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic was 4,296 million Euros.

On the revenue side, the DGO highlights the suspension of payments on account of the IRC, at 695.4 million Euros, and the estimated loss of tax revenue associated with the exemption from payment of the Single Social Tax (508.7 million Euros) under the simplified 'lay-off' scheme, support for the gradual recovery and financial incentive for the normalisation of business activity.

Regarding expenditure, the lay-off was the measure with the greatest impact (€823.2 million), followed by expenditure associated with Health (€549.9 million), namely Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medicines.

Expenditure on extraordinary support for the reduction of self-employed economic activity totalled €280 million and the extraordinary incentive for standardisation amounted to €284.1 million, with extraordinary support for the gradual resumption of activity (€158.7 million).

The DGO also points out that in the absence of expenditure associated with the measures under Covid-19 "effective general government expenditure would have grown by 1.8 percent compared to the previous year (instead of 5.3 percent) and effective revenue would have fallen by 4 percent (instead of 5.6 percent)".

The general government deficit amounted to EUR 10.3 billion in 2020, a figure that represents a worsening of EUR 9.7 billion compared to 2019.