The government wage bill went up by €39.3 million between January and November, according to official figures released on Friday.

According to the National Statistics Office, the government also spent €24.1 million on health concessions, although no details were given in the report.

Between January and November, the government surplus reached €84.6 million, since recurrent revenue went up by €421.4 million, while spending only went up by €276.5 million.

In January-November 2017, recurrent revenue was recorded at €3.7 billion, with most of the 12.8% increase down to higher Income Tax and Value Added Tax.

Compared to January-November last year, spending stood at €3,622.8 million up with an increase in recurrent expenditure to €3,156.4 million from €2,881.3 million last year.

The main contributors to this increase were programmes and onitiatives, and personal emoluments with a rise of €204.7 million and €39.3 million respectively.

The Programmes and Initiatives category included health concession agreement payments of €24.1 million, on which no further details were available.

The costs associated with the public debt went down considerably, to €197.1 million, from €205.7 million last year.

Government’s capital expenditure witnessed an increase of €10 million, and was recorded at €269.2 million. 

At the end of November 2017, Central Government Debt stood at €5,398.9 million, down by €122.8 million compared with a year earlier.