In the first quarter of 2015, Government’s Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €85.3 million, the National Statistics Office said today.
During January-March of this year, recurrent revenue registered an increase of €136.9 million while expenditure went down by €3.3 million, thereby resulting in a positive change in the Government’s Consolidated Fund of €140.2 million.
In January-March, recurrent revenue was recorded at €774.7 million, up from €637.8 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative increase of 21.5 per cent were higher proceeds from Grants by €103.0 million. Moreover, increases were registered in Customs and Excise Duties (€18.2 million), Licences, Taxes and Fines (€10.2 million) and Value Added Tax (€9.8 million). On the other hand, Income Tax registered a fall of €12.4 million.
Compared to January-March last year, higher spending was registered on recurrent expenditure and interest payments which was outweighed by lower capital outlays, resulting in a decline of €3.3 million in total expenditure.
Recurrent expenditure went up by €2.5 million, totalling €715.4 million. Increases were recorded in Personal Emoluments (€10.1 million) and Operational and Maintenance Expenses (€4.1 million). Conversely, lower outlays were registered in Programmes and Initiatives by €7.5 million and Contributions to Government Entities by €4.2 million.
The major declines in the Programmes and Initiatives category were recorded in social security benefits (€9.4 million), feed-in-tariff (€5.0 million) and medicines and surgical materials (€3.0 million). These were partially offset by added outlays on the one-time additional bonus (€7.0 million) and child care for all (€3.1 million).
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs for the first three months of 2015 stood at €56.3 million from €53.8 million last year.
In addition, Government’s Capital Expenditure stood at €88.4 million from €96.7 million last year. This was mainly due to a lower equity injection to the national air carrier which was partially outweighed by added outlays on the acquisition of property for public purposes (€7.1 million).
At the end of March 2015, Central Government Debt stood at €5,365.5 million, up by €129.6 million, over the corresponding period last year. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks, which added €321.5 million. On the other hand, Treasury Bills and
Foreign Loans went down by €159.1 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 €27.6 million. The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €5.3 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of March 2014, and totalled €60.3 million.