Government's Consolidated Fund registers €118.9 million deficit in first five months

In the first five months of 2015, Government’s Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €118.9 million.

During January-May, recurrent revenue registered an increase of €185.8 million over January-May last year, which outweighed the rise in expenditure of €65.7 million, hence resulting in a positive change in the Government’s Consolidated Fund of €120.0 million.

Recurrent revenue was recorded at €1,339.9 million, up from €1,154.1 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative increase of 16.1 per cent were higher proceeds from Grants (€72.9 million), Customs and Excise Duties (€35.8 million), Income Tax (€25.5 million) and Value Added Tax (€17.9 million). On the other hand, Fees of Office registered a decrease of €4.7 million.

Compared to the first five months last year, total expenditure recorded an increase of €65.7 million due to higher recurrent and capital expenditures and interest payments.

Recurrent expenditure went up by €32.6 million, totalling €1,183.9 million. Personal Emoluments recorded the highest increase at €16.9 million, followed by Operational and Maintenance Expenses with a rise of €6.1 million. Contributions to Government Entities went up by €5.0 million and Programmes and Initiatives by €4.7 million.

The major developments in the Programmes and Initiatives category involved lower outlays on social security benefits (€6.0 million), offset by added expenditure on the one-time additional bonus (€7.1 million) and child care for all (€3.8 million).

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the first five months of 2015 stood at €96.1 million from €92.3 million last year.

In addition, Government’s Capital Expenditure was recorded at €178.7 million, up by €29.2 million from last year. This increase was mainly due to added outlays on the acquisition of property for public purposes (€8.0 million), ICT core services agreement (€6.4 million), national identity management systems (€2.4 million) and EU funded expenditure on agriculture (€2.4 million). These were partially outweighed by a lower equity injection to the national air carrier.

At the end of May 2015, Central Government Debt stood at €5,345.2 million, an increase of €61.4 million over the corresponding period last year. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks, which added €266.6 million. On the other hand, Treasury Bills and Foreign Loans went down by €162.8 million and €10.6 million respectively.

As a result of consolidation, higher holdings by government funds in Malta Government Stocks resulted in a reduction in debt of €37.6 million. The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €5.8 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of May 2014, and totalled €61.9 million.