In 2015, Government’s Consolidated Fund registered a deficit of €235.8 million, the National Statistics Office said today.

Compared to 2014, recurrent revenue registered an increase of €247.6 million whilst total expenditure went up by €347.1 million, thereby widening the shortfall in the Government’s Consolidated Fund by €99.5 million.

In January-December, recurrent revenue was recorded at €3,634.8 million, up from €3,387.2 million last year. The major contributors to the comparative increase of 7.3 per cent were higher proceeds from Income Tax (€116.5 million), Value Added Tax (€60.3 million), Social Security (€40.4 million) and Licenses, Taxes and Fines (€36.8 million), among others.

Conversely, the key declines were registered in Fees of Office and Customs and Excise Duties with €25.8 million and €12.2 million respectively.

Total expenditure went up by €347.1 million and stood at €3,870.6 million mainly as a result of higher spending on recurrent and capital expenditures and interest payments.

Recurrent expenditure stood at €3,056.8 million from €2,857.1 million last year. This was the result of higher outlays on Programmes and Initiatives by €107.6 million. The major developments in this category involved increases in EU Own Resources (€32.6 million), social security benefits (€15.5 million), provision of spare capacity electricity (€14.2 million), social security state contribution, which also features as revenue (€13.3 million), church schools contribution (€6.1 million) and child care for all (€5.8 million).

Moreover, Personal Emoluments, Contributions to Government Entities and Operational and Maintenance Expenses also registered increases by €38.4 million, €32.2 million and €21.6 million respectively.

The interest component of the public debt servicing costs stood at €232.3 million, up from €231.1 million last year.

Government’s Capital expenditure witnessed an increase of €146.1 million, and was recorded at €581.5 million. The increase was mainly related to the closure for the payments under the EU funding programme 2007-2013 by the end of December 2015.

This primarily included higher outlays on the Malta MBT Plant (€25.5 million), the water quality and supply project (€16.9 million), autoclave animal waste facility (€14.1 million), and e-services accessibility for all (€11.7 million), among others.

At the end of 2015, Central Government Debt stood at €5,334.1 million, up by €204.5 million over 2014. This was the result of higher Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills, which added €126.0 million and €81.6 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 December 2015, and totalled €67.9 million.

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