By the end of September 2021, the Government’s Consolidated Fund reported a deficit of €906.8 million, the NSO reported today.
In the first nine months of 2021, Recurrent Revenue amounted to €3,627.0 million, 23.8 per cent higher than the €2,930.3 million reported a year earlier. The largest increase was recorded under Income Tax (€351.5 million), followed by Value Added Tax (€175.6 million) and Social Security (€140.1 million).
On the other hand, total expenditure stood at €4,533.8 million, 11.4 per cent higher than the previous year. During the reference period, Recurrent Expenditure totalled €3,965.1 million, a rise of €644.9 million in comparison to the €3,320.2 million reported by the end of September 2020.
The main contributor to this increase was a €534.4 million rise reported under Programmes and Initiatives. Furthermore, increases were also witnessed under Personal Emoluments (€81.0 million) and Contributions to Government Entities (€32.8 million).
The largest development in the Programmes and Initiatives category was related to the Pandemic assistance scheme (€278.4 million), which includes the COVID-19 Business Assistance Programme. Other increases under Programmes and Initiatives were reported under EU own resources (€78.2 million) and Hospital concession agreements (€31.6 million).
The interest component of the public debt servicing costs totalled €137.1 million, a decrease of €1.6 million when
compared to the previous year.
By the end of September 2021, Government’s capital spending amounted to €431.6 million, €178.8 million lower than 2020. The drop largely resulted from the reclassification of the COVID-19 Business Assistance Programme (€237.0 million), which featured under Capital Expenditure between March and December 2020 but is now classified under Recurrent Expenditure. This decline outweighed an increase of €58.2 million reported in other capital projects.
