In January-February 2016, Government's Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €27.2 million, the National Statistics Office said today.

Compared to the first two months of last year, recurrent revenue registered a decline of €64.0 million whilst total expenditure increased by €12.9 million, thereby widening the shortfall in the Government's Consolidated Fund by €76.9 million.

In January-February, recurrent revenue was recorded at €546.0 million, down from €610.0 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative decrease of 10.5 per cent were lower proceeds from Grants by €114.9 million. Conversely, major increases were recorded in Customs and Excise duties (€16.2 million), Social Security (€13.7 million), Licenses, Taxes and Fines (€8.7 million) and Value Added Tax (€6.4 million).

Compared to January-February last year, total expenditure went up by €12.9 million mainly as result of higher spending on recurrent expenditure partially outweighed by lower outlays on capital projects.

Recurrent expenditure stood at €504.7 million from €461.0 million last year. This was the result of higher Contributions to Government Entities by €20.8 million followed by added outlays on Programmes and Initiatives by €11.8 million. The major developments in the latter category involved higher social security benefits (€12.9 million) and an increase in the social security state contribution, which also features as revenue (€4.0 million).

These were partially offset by lower EU Own Resources (€7.9 million). Personal Emoluments and Operational and Maintenance Expenses also registered increases by €5.7 million and €5.3 million respectively.

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs stood at €36.2 million, up from €35.9 million last year.

Government's capital expenditure witnessed a decline of €31.1 million, and was recorded at €32.3 million. This fall was primarily due to the closure of the EU funds programming period 2007-2013.

At the end of February 2016, Central Government Debt stood at €5,651.6 million, up by €452.3 million over the corresponding period last year. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills, which added €325.7 million and €129.2 million respectively. On the other hand, Foreign Loans went down by €10.6 million.

Holdings by Government funds in Malta Government Stocks remained almost at the same level of last year.

The Euro coins issued in the name of the Treasury went up by €8.1 million when compared to the coin stock as at the end of February 2015, and totalled €68.2 million.

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