Malta government deficit in 2015 at €120 million, 1.4% of GDP

The General Government deficit for 2015 stood at €120.3 million, or 1.4 per cent of GDP, and gross consolidated debt amounted to €5,621.9 million or 64% of GDP.

In 2015, the deficit went down by €45.7 million from €165.9 million recorded in 2014, down to 1.4% of GDP from 2.1% in 2014.

In data also released by the NSO for the second quarter of 2016, government recorded a surplus of €10.8 million.

During the period April-June 2016, total revenue stood at €905.1 million, an increase of €19.7 million when compared to the second quarter of 2015. This increase in revenue was mainly triggered by higher receipts from Current taxes on income and wealth (€40 million) and Net Social Contributions receivable (€15.5 million).

Total expenditure in the second quarter amounted to €894.3 million, a decrease of €29.6 million from the second quarter of 2015. The main decreases were recorded in Gross capital formation (€54.9 million), Capital transfers payable (€4.2 million), and Property income payable (€2.0 million).

Conversely, increases were recorded in Compensation of employees (€16.1 million), Social benefits and social transfers in kind (€10.0 million) and Current transfers payable (€8.0 million).

The Government guaranteed debt amounted to €1,420.7 million at the end of June 2016, an increase of €209.0 million when compared to the same period last year

At the end of 2015, gross consolidated debt amounted to €5,621.9 million, an increase of €200.8 million over 2014, while the debt-to-GDP ratio declined to 64.0 per cent from 67.0 per cent in 2014.

Adjustments were made to the balance of the consolidated fund, which amounted to a deficit of €232.8 million, namely the Other accounts receivable and payable (€108.5 million) and the treasury clearance fund (€55.5 million).

Conversely, the main negative adjustments were the Equity injection to the national air carrier (€43 million), the difference between interest paid and accrued (€7.9 million) and the time-adjusted cash transactions (€3.8 million)

On 30 September, Malta submitted its report on government deficit and debt levels for the years 2012-2015. Compared to the previous submission of 30 March 2016, the deficit of the General Government was revised for all the years under review with a total upward revision of €5.3 million in 2012, €1.2 million in 2013 and €2.6 million in 2014 and a downward revision of €8.7 million in 2015.

The revisions in 2012-2014 were due to the availability of audited accounts for Extra Budgetary Units. For 2015, the availability of audited accounts for Local Councils and Extra Budgetary Units resulted in a downward revision in the deficit of €4.5 million and €4.7 million respectively.

On the other hand, the Other accounts receivable/payable was revised upwards by 0.4 million. With regards to General Government debt, data was revised marginally for 2013 (+€1.1 million), 2014 (-€0.7 million) and 2015 (+€1.3 million).