Government debt much higher than targetted - PL spokesman

The government had borrowed €100 million more than it had targeted to borrow this year up to the end of July , PL finance spokesman Charles Mangion said in a statement.

Dr Mangion said that according to NSO statistics for the first seven months of the, although the government had removed utility subsidies and did not have to support the shipyards, national debt rose to €4,129 million when according to budget estimates this had to reach €4,030 million by the end of the year.

This was increasing the expense on interests with the Maltese taxpayer paying more than €551,000 daily in interest. Dr Mangion said that although government statistics showed a drop of €46 million in the deficit of the first seven months last year, this was nearly all due to an additional income of €41 million from taxes as a result of amnesties.