The deficit reached €141.9 million in the first six months of the year, with the government spending considerably more than the additional revenue it received.

In June 2017, the deficit was €92 million.

Revenue went up by 3.8 per cent to €1.89 billion, mostly due to higher income from income tax and social security.

However, total spending went up by 6.2 per cent to €2.04 million, spread across both recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure but with a considerable emphasis on the former. In fact, capital expenditure was only up by €2.6 million.

The government debt stood at €5.48 billion, down by €91.7 million over the end of June 2017.