The government surplus during the first two months of the year reached €18.7 million, considerably less than the €30.6 million surplus in January and February of 2017.

The National Statistics Office reported that revenue did go up but that spending went up further.

Compared to the same period last year, recurrent revenue registered an increase of €36.3 million whereas total expenditure went up by €48.2 million.

In January-February 2018, recurrent revenue was recorded at €657.9 million, up from €621.6 million last year. The comparative increase of 5.8 per cent was primarily the result of higher Value Added Tax and Income Tax which increased by €33.7 million and €24.3 million respectively.

Conversely, decreases were mainly recorded in Grants (€21.0 million) and other categories.

Compared to January-February 2017, total expenditure stood at €639.1 million up from €590.9 million due to added outlays on recurrent expenditure which outweighed lower spending on capital expenditure and interest expenditure.

Recurrent expenditure stood at €577.0 million from €521.3 million last year. The main contributors to this increase were Programmes and Initiatives and Personal Emoluments with a rise of €38.5 million and €13.5 million respectively.

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs stood at €36.3 million, down from €36.8 million last year.

Government’s capital expenditure witnessed a decrease of €7.0 million, and was recorded at €25.8 million. This was mainly the result of lower spending on construction works and equipment (€2.1 million), film industry incentives (€1.4 million), EU Structural Funds 2014-2020 (€1.3 million) and road construction improvements (€1.1 million).

At the end of February 2018, Central Government Debt stood at €5,409.0 million, down by €261.4 million over the corresponding month last year.

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