In January 2016, Government's Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €48.8 million, the National Statistics Office said today.
Compared to the first month of last year, recurrent revenue registered a decrease of €67.0 million whilst total expenditure went down by €6.1 million, thereby resulting in a negative change in the Government's Consolidated Fund of €60.9 million.
In January, recurrent revenue was recorded at €209.4 million, down from €276.4 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative decrease of 24.3 per cent were lower proceeds from Grants by €73.0 million.
Moreover, Value Added Tax and Miscellaneous Receipts declined by €15.4 million and €2.9 million respectively. On the contrary, increases were recorded in Customs and Excise Duties (€10.4 million), Social Security (€7.9 million) and Income Tax (€4.5 million).
Compared to January last year, total expenditure went down by €6.1 million mainly as result of lower spending on capital expenditures whereas a marginal decline was registered in recurrent expenditure. Conversely, a slight increase was recorded in interest payments.
Recurrent expenditure stood at €220.0 million from €220.1 million in January last year. This was the result of lower Contributions to Government Entities by €9.8 million which were outweighed by increases in Programmes and Initiatives (€4.0 million), Personal Emoluments (€3.0 million) and Operational and Maintenance Expenses (€2.7 million).
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs stood at €15.2 million, up by €1.0 million from last year.
Government's Capital expenditure witnessed a decline of €7.0 million, and was recorded at €23.0 million.
At the end of January 2016, Central Government Debt stood at €5,438.0 million, up by €240.4 million over the corresponding period last year. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills, which added €126.0 million and €117.5 million respectively.
On the other hand, Foreign Loans went down by €10.6 million. Holdings by Government funds in Malta Government Stocks remained at the same level of last year.
The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €7.5 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of January 2015, and totalled €67.8 million.