Government finances registered a surplus of €12.1 million in January, according to data released by the National Statistics Office.

Revenue increased by €78.3 million when compared to the same month last year and expenditure dropped by €22.7 million.

This contributed to a “positive change” in the government’s consolidated fund of €101.1 million, the NSO said.

Recurrent revenue amounted to €276.4 million last month, up from €198.1 million a year earlier. This was mainly due to higher proceeds from grants to the tune of €74 million. VAT and miscellaneous receipts also increased, by €3.4 million and €2.7 million, respectively. On the flip side, Customs and excise duties fell by €4 million.

Compared to January last year, there were drops in recurrent and capital expenditures and interest payments. This led to a decline in expenditure of €22.7 million.

Recurrent expenditure went down by €11.5 million, to reach €220.1 million.

The government spent €12.5 million less on social security benefits, €8.5 million less on medicine and surgical materials and €5 million less on the feed-in tariff for solar energy produced by households and businesses.

Higher outlays were noted in the contributions to government entities (€14 million), operational and maintenance expenses (€3.5 million) and personal emoluments (€3 million). The interest component of public debt servicing costs in January declined to €14.2 million from €17.8 million last year.

Capital expenditure stood at €30 million, down €7.7 million over January 2014. This decline was a result of a lower equity injection in Air Malta.

Government debt at the end of January stood at €5.2 billion, an increase of €180.4 million, over the corresponding period last year. This was due to higher government stocks, which added €288.7 million, even though this was mitigated by a drop in Treasury bills and foreign loans.

As a result of consolidation, higher holdings by government funds in government stocks resulted in a drop in debt of €25.9 million.