Government finances will have to be rigidly controlled in this last quarter of the year if the deficit benchmarks announced in the last Budget and agreed with the EU are to be reached.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has announced the government should be in a position to lower the deficit to 2.3 per cent by the end of 2014.

Data published by the NSO yesterday shows the deficit in September stood at €284 million, which means that in the last quarter the government will have to bridge a substantial gap to reach its deficit target of €152m.

The figures show that until September the deficit had gone up by 4.6 per cent - €12.5 million higher - when compared to the same period last year.

Revenue increased by €171.1 million in the first nine months, when compared to the January-September period in 2013 but the expenditure grew too, by €183.6 million.

The largest growth in the government’s expenditure so far was connected to public wages. According to the NSO, these shot up by almost €40 million in September when compared to 2013.

Contributions to public entities increased by €31 million in the first nine months of the year.

About €150m owed by Enemalta in excise duties was expected to be returned to government coffers

Revenue streams also continued to grow, particularly VAT and income tax. VAT contributed an additional €50 million and almost €46 million more came from income tax.

Debt also significantly increased, reaching €5.3 billion by the end of September or almost €200 million more than the figure at the corresponding period last year.

According to the 2014 Budget estimates, the government is aiming to end the year with a deficit of 2.3 per cent.

Asked to comment on the latest deficit statistics a few days ago, Prof. Scicluna said everything was on track to meet the targets. He said that about €150 million owed by Enemalta in excise duties was expected to be returned to government coffers as soon as a deal with the Chinese government on the partial sale of Enemalta was concluded.