Recurrent revenue up

Recurrent revenue in the first 10 months of 2004 amounted to Lm608.4 million and made up 72.2 per cent of this year's budget forecast, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

This represents an increase of Lm47.5 million or 8.5 per cent on the same period last year.

At the same time, total expenditure amounted to Lm729.2 million, an increase of Lm28.3 million over the Lm700.9 million spent last year.

The structural deficit between recurrent revenue and total expenditure amounted to Lm120.8 million, compared to a shortfall of Lm140.0 million reported for January - October 2003.

The NSO said that government expenditure for the first 10 months of the year made up 78.5 per cent of this year's budgeted expenditure.

The expenditure for the comparative period last year made up 82.5 per cent of the actual total expenditure for 2003.