Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has said that the deficit for 2021 is looking like it will be lower than was originally projected.

Asked whether the government met its financial targets for 2021, he said that the deficit figures will be published next month.

"But from the figures I have in hand from the government's estimates it seems that the deficit will be lower than what I projected. Last year during the budget speech I said it will be 11.1% but it looks like it will be less than that," Caruana said.

The impact of Covid-19 saw the government use a lot of funds to mitigate the impact of the virus and the associated measures.

In his budget speech last year, the Finance Minister had also said that the government expects to halve the deficit for the year 2022 to 5.6% as the country's economy recovers.