The government's deficit between January and November amounted to €188.9 million.

The National Statistics Office said recurrent revenue registered an increase of €330.6 million, which offset the increase of €212.2 million in expenditure when compared to the corresponding period last year, narrowing the shortfall between revenue and expenditure by €118.4 million.

Recurrent revenue was recorded at €2,895.4 million, up by 12.9 per cent over last year. The main contributors to the increase were customs and excise duties which went up by €111.6 million, mainly following the receipt of excise arrears.

Other major increases were registered in income tax (€57.3 million), social security contributions (€50.7 million), value added tax (€42.1 million) and grants (€26.2 million).

Recurrent expenditure increased by €177.8 million, mainly as a result of higher spending on programmes and initiatives (€85.3 million).

The major increases registered in the programmes and initiatives category were recorded in the public service obligations (€20.6 million), social security state contribution, which also feature as revenue (€16.6 million), medicines and surgical materials (€12.5 million), social security benefi ts (€9.2 million), child care for all (€4.7 million) and the ex-gratia grant scheme for motor vehicles (€3.2 million),
among others.

In addition, personal emoluments and contributions to government entities
increased by €48.1 million and €36.4 million respectively.

Operational and maintenance expenditure went up by €7.9 million.

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the period under review amounted to €210.6 million, an increase of €3.2 million over last year.

Expenditure on government’s capital projects amounted to €370.5 million. The increase of €31.2 million was mainly brought about by added outlays on EU funded capital projects primarily involving road works and the procurement of a helicopter.

Conversely, a lower equity injection to the national air carrier was registered.

At the end of November, central government debt stood at €5,261.7 million, up by €196.8 million over the corresponding period last year.

This was the result of higher long-term borrowing, which added €290.3 million.

Short-term and foreign borrowing went down by €87.4 million and €10.5 million respectively.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.