Portugal swung to a stronger-than-expected budget surplus of 1.2% of GDP last year from a deficit in 2022, with inflation fuelling tax revenue and new jobs boosting social security contributions, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Monday.

As part of the country's excessive deficit procedure reported to Brussels, the INE also said that Portugal was expected to end this year with a surplus of 0.2% of gross domestic product.

The fiscally prudent caretaker socialist government had predicted a surplus of 0.8% of GDP in 2023 following a budget deficit of 0.3% the previous year.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip)