Government’s Consolidated Fund registers €108.6 million deficit in first four months

According to NSO figures, the recurrent revenue registered an increase of €167.6 million which outweighed the rise in expenditure of €37.9 million during the period stretching from January to April. This meant that there was a positive change in the Government’s Consolidated Fund of €129.7 million.

Figures show that in January-March, recurrent revenue was recorded at €1,048.7 million, up from €881.1 million last year.

The major contributors to the comparative increase of 19% were, higher proceeds from Grants, by €110.7 million, increases in Customs and Excise Duties (€27.0 million), Social Security (€9.4 million), Miscellaneous Receipts (€9.0 million) and Income Tax (€5.7 million), among others. On the other hand, Fees of Office registered a decrease of €3.3 million, the NSO said.

Statistics show that, compared to the first four months last year, total expenditure had recorded an increase of €37.9 million due to higher recurrent and capital expenditures and interest payments.

NSO said that recurrent expenditure went up by €18.4 million, totalling €948.1 million, while personal emoluments and operational and maintenance expenses recorded increases of €14.0 million and €3.1 million respectively. However, contributions to government entities and programmes and initiatives registered marginal increases. The major developments in the programmes and initiatives category involved lower outlays on social security benefits (€7.7 million) and medicines and surgical materials (€1.4 million), offset by added expenditure on the one-time additional bonus (€7.1 million) and child care for all (€3 million).

According to NSO, the interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the first four months of 2015 stood at €78.4 million compared to €72.2 million last year.

It added that Government’s Capital Expenditure stood at €130.8 million and went up by €13.4 million from last year, which was mainly due to added outlays on the acquisition of property for public purposes (€8.6 million), enterprise investment incentives (€6.7 million), ICT core services agreement (€3.2 million) and EU funded expenditure on agriculture (€3.1 million). These were all partially outweighed by a lower equity injection to the national air carrier.

Figures show that at the end of April 2015, Central Government Debt stood at €5,364 million, an increase of €68.6 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 €165.3 million and €10.5 million respectively. As a result of consolidation, higher holdings by government funds in Malta Government Stocks resulted in a reduction in debt of €27.6 million. The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €5.4 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of April 2014, and totalled €60.8 million.