The government deficit for this year is expected to be €217.6 million, or 3.79 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in the Budget speech this evening.

For next year, he said the deficit was expected to remain at the same levels as a percentage of GDP.

The minister said there were several factors which had contributed for the increase in the deficit this year .

While revenue from income tax had increased, revenue from taxes in general had decreased.

An increase of €119 million euro was expected over the original estimate for 2009 in the different categories of Recurrent Expenditure, notably the need for the government to absorb the dockyard debt and fund the shipyard retirement schemes.

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