Government deficit higher than predicted – Labour

The government has already surpassed its deficit target for the year by nearly €100 million, Labour finance spokesman Charles Mangion said yesterday.

Referring to government finance data issued by the National Statistics Office last week, Dr Mangion said that in estimates presented by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, government debt was meant to rise to €4,030 million in 2010. By July, however, the figure was already up to €4,129 million.

“This increase in debt is raising the expenditure on interest. In the first seven months, Maltese taxpayers had to fork out €551,000 daily in interest,” Dr Mangion said.

He said that, although the statistics showed a drop of €46 million in the deficit over the first seven months of 2009, this was “very poor” when one considered it was nearly all due to higher revenue from taxes, amounting to €41 million, as a result of tax amnesty schemes.