The government’s deficit for last year’s third quarter stood at €94.1 million, up from €57 million in the same period the year before, the National Statistics Office said.
It said in a statement that in the July-September 2013 period, total revenue stood at €682.1 million, an increase of €33.3 million when compared to the third quarter of 2012.
This was mainly triggered by higher proceeds from taxes on production and imports of €21.5 million.
Current taxes on income and wealth recorded a decline of €12.3 million.
Total expenditure in the third quarter amounted to €776.2 million. The largest increases were recorded in social benefi ts and social transfers in Kind (+€39.7 million), compensation of employees (+€21.6 million) and gross capital formation (+€10.2 million). Conversely, intermediate consumption went down by €4.2 million.
Total general government debt outstanding at the end of September advanced by €509.3 million over the comparable period in 2012. General government debt amounted to €5,408.9 million, of which €5,404.7 million related to central government.
The increase of €509.2 million in central government debt was underpinned by higher long-term securities (Malta Government Stocks) of €376.5 million and an increase in short-term securities of €103.3 million.
Moreover, short-term loans went up by €20.8 million whereas long-term loans increased by €3.2 million.
PN STATEMENT: DEBT INCREASES BY HALF A BILLION EURO
In a statement, the opposition spokesman for finance, Tonio Fenech expressed concern that the deficit had continued to widen despite the fact that the EU had placed Malta under an excessive deficit procedure.
The deteriorating situation explained why the prime minister was in such a hurry to bring in the citizenship for sale scheme, Mr Fenech said. The prime minister wanted to use the funds to solve the problems he had himself created while paying the millions needed for him to keep his promises.
Mr Fenech noted that in the third quarter of this year, the deficit widened by more than €94m from €57m in the same period last year. The debt increased by more than half a billion euro.Spending on governemnt salaries increased by €22m in just three months, a steeper increase than before.
"The present governemnt has burdened the people with an additional debt of half a billion euro without having anything to show for it" Mr Fenech said.
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