By the end of October 2021, the Government’s Consolidated Fund reported a staggering deficit of €1,064.9 million.
Figures released by the NSO today show that recurrent Revenue amounted to €4,017.5 million, 21.1 per cent higher than the
€3,318.3 million reported a year earlier. The largest increase was recorded under Income Tax (€334.2 million),
followed by Value Added Tax (€182.4 million), Social Security (€138.8 million).
On the other hand, total expenditure stood at €5,082.5 million, 11.4 per cent higher than the previous year.
During the reference period, Recurrent Expenditure totalled €4,424.3 million, a rise of €730.0 million in comparison
to the €3,694.4 million reported by the end of October 2020. The main contributor to this increase was a €603.8
million rise reported under Programmes and Initiatives. Furthermore, increases were also witnessed under
Personal Emoluments (€91.2 million), Contributions to Government Entities (€30.4 million) and Operational and
Maintenance Expenses (€4.5 million).
The largest development in the Programmes and Initiatives category was related to the Pandemic assistance scheme (€300.4 million), which includes the COVID-19 Business Assistance Programme. Other increases under Programmes and Initiatives were reported under EU own resources (€77.6 million) and the Hospital concession agreements (€46.0 million), Social security benefits (€45.5 million), St Vincent de Paul Residence service contract (€17.9 million).
According to Government’s projections in Budget 2022, Malta is expected to end this year with a 9.4% deficit (€1.22 billion) which is projected to fall to 5.9% (€751m) next year.
