Deficit in second quarter is lowest since 2020, NSO figures show

The government deficit in the second quarter of this year was the lowest since 2020, figures released by the National Statistics Office show.

Between April and June, the deficit stood at €120.8 million on the back of higher government receipts and lower expenditure when compared to the previous quarter.

The Finance Minister had ordered a general government spending review just before the summer months in a bid to lessen the impact of hefty subsidies on energy, fuel and grain imports.

The NSO figures show that in the first half of 2022, the deficit stood at €511 million, which is the lowest it has been for the same period in the previous two years.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, Malta registered a deficit of €771 million in the first half of the year, which dropped to €577 million in the first six months of 2021.

Public finances got pummelled during the COVID years and remain under pressure now as a result of the war in Ukraine.

In 2019, the year preceding the pandemic, public finances had registered a surplus of €10 million in the first six months of the year. The surplus was maintained throughout the rest of 2019, which saw public finances end the year with a surplus of €82 million.

In 2020, public finances ended the year with a deficit of €1.2 billion, dropping slightly to €1.1 billion in 2021.

Meanwhile, NSO figures also show that the country’s debt soared from €5.7 billion in 2018 to €8.3 billion in 2021. The general government debt as a percentage of GDP rose from 43.7% in 2018 to 56.3% last year.