LISBON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese deficit stood at 1.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first half of the year, down from 6.1 percent in the same period last year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Friday.

The year-on-year evolution of the budget balance "results primarily from the impact of the recapitalization operation of Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD), which occurred in the first quarter of 2017," the INE said.

The improvement is also associated with the "adjustment of the sectoral delimitation of public administrations at the level of public enterprises and the temporal adjustment of taxes and contributions," the agency said.

Although the deficit decreased in the first half of this year compared to the same period of last year, it still is above the government's target of 0.7 percent for the whole of the year, the INE said.