The Ministry for Finance welcomes the latest Government finance data published by the NSO, which shows that during the period January to November of this year, the Government recorded a surplus of €8.0 million, representing a positive change over last year by €43.2 million.
The surplus for the first eleven months reflected a significant increase in recurrent revenue, where remarkable increases were recorded in all the main sources of revenue, while the increase in expenditure was contained at a relatively lower pace.
Recurrent revenue increased by €463.4 million in total during the first eleven months of 2019 buoyed by the growth in tax revenue. Indeed, despite the various tax cuts implemented in recent years to increase the take-home pay of all families, increases were recorded in all categories of tax revenues. Nonetheless, non-tax revenue also increased.
Recurrent expenditure increased by €386.7 million in the period January to November of this year. The highest contributor to this increase continued to be expenditure on programs and initiatives. This category of expenditure includes government spending related to the implementation of the 2019 budget measures as well as the extension of measures launched in previous budgets, in particular the enhancement of various social benefits for the vulnerable groups and measures to strengthen elderly care, the free childcare centres, the free school transport for all, health-related expenditure including the free medicine and cancer treatments, as well as additional expenditure to enhance the environment and solid waste management. The increase also reflected added outlays on EU own resources.
Capital expenditure increased by €44.9 million. This increase continued to be fuelled by the record investment channelled for the upgrading of the road infrastructure and improvements to buildings and equipment.
Interest on government expenditure continued to decrease such that in total, for the period January to November 2019, interest payments decreased by €11.4 million or 6.2 per cent when compared to the same eleven months of the previous year.
“With these positive results, I am quite confident that we will record a fiscal surplus for the 4th consecutive year in 2019”, stated the Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna.
20/12/2019