Updated - Adds government reaction below - The government’s Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €174.9 million in the first seven months of the year, from €309,499 in the same months last year, official data issued today shows.
Compared to January-July 2014, recurrent revenue recorded an increase of €240.8 million which outweighed a rise in expenditure of €106.2 million, hence resulting in a positive change in the Government’s Consolidated Fund of €134.6 million.
In the first seven months of this year, recurrent revenue was recorded at €1,871.9 million, up from €1,631.1 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative increase of 14.8 per cent were higher proceeds from Grants (€55.8 million), Customs and Excise Duties (€55.1 million) and Income Tax (€54.0 million).
On the other hand, proceeds from the Central Bank registered a decrease of €1.0 million.
Compared to the same period last year, total expenditure increased by €106.2 million due to higher recurrent and capital expenditures.
Recurrent expenditure went up by €92.5 million, totalling €1,675.1 million. Programmes and Initiatives recorded the highest increase at €37.3 million. The major developments in this category involved added expenditure on the one-time additional bonus (€7.1million), medicines and surgical materials (€6.0 million), EU Own Resources (€5.6 million), contribution towards church schools (€4.7 million) and child care for all (€4.4 million).
Conversely, lower outlays on social security benefits of €2.5 million were registered.
Other increases in recurrent expenditure were recorded in Personal Emoluments by €22.7 million, followed by Contributions to Government Entities and Operational and Maintenance Expenses, with a rise of €19.6 and €12.8 million respectively.
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs stood at €131.3 million down by €0.6 million from last year.
Government’s Capital Expenditure was recorded at €240.4 million, up by €14.3 million from last year. This increase was mainly due to added outlays on the acquisition of
property for public purposes (€6.1 million), expenditure funded by the external borders fund (€5.9 million), enterprise investment incentives (€4.3 million) and EU funded expenditure on agriculture (€4.2 million). These increases were partially outweighed by a lower equity injection to the national air carrier.
At the end of July 2015, Central Government Debt stood at €5,399.1 million, an increase of €134.3 million over the corresponding period last year. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks by €345.6 million only partially outweighed by lower Treasury Bills and Foreign Loans by €158.5 million and €10.6 million respectively.
As a result of consolidation, higher holdings by government funds in Malta Government Stocks resulted in a reduction in debt of €48.0 million. The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €5.7 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of July 2014, and totalled €64.2 million.
'DEFICIT HALF THAT OF PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION'
In a statement, the government said today's figures showed how the deficit in the consolidated fund was now half that of the same months in the last year of the former government.
While the Opposition accused the government of uncontrolled spending, the official figures showed that growth of recurrent expenditure was well below the 9.1% in the same period of the last year of the PN administration.
At the same time, using the same comparison, capital expenditure was up by €60 million. This had contributed to business optimism and improvement of public services and the infrastructure.
Malta now had debt and deficit levels that were less of a burden on the economy and no austerity. It was this investment climate which has seen unemployment fall to its lowest levels ever, the government said.