The gross general government’s debt shot up by €549 million, the Nationalist Party said.

Quoting official figures published by the National Statistics Office today, the party said this meant that the government spent €600,000 more than it earned for each day in office.

The PN said government’s debt was expected to continue expanding next year.

The party said that part of this debt was due to the rapid explosion in the public sector wage bill which shot up by €132 million since 2012.

The government was budgeting a further increase of €50 million for public service wages next year bringing the total public service wage bill to €790 million from €612 million at the end of 2012.

This increase was fuelled by the thousands of jobs created in the public sector, the high wages being paid on consultancies and the jobs created for those in the inner circle of friends. All this contributed to the debt as did the monies spent on dubious deals including the €4.2 million paid out on the Café Premier deal.

The debt could have been higher were it not for the fact that the government sold the BWSC plant to Shanghai Electric and used the proceeds to pay off Enemalta’s arrears on excise tax.

The most worrying aspect in all this, the PN said, was that the government had nothing to show for this debt.

"This government did not start, let alone finish any of its promised capital projects," it said.