Government debt reaches nearly Lm1,000m

Government debt outstanding at the end of last month stood at Lm993.90m, up by Lm96.6m from July last year, by Lm68.6m from the end of 2000, and by Lm19.6m compared to the end of June, provisional figures from the Central Bank reveal.
Most of the debt is made up of government stock, at Lm768.2m. Foreign borrowing accounts for Lm36.9m only.
The Lm993.9m figures includes government-guaranteed debt but this is steadily decreasing. The June figure is almost Lm35m lower than the Lm469.7m guaranteed at the end of last year.
Figures released by the National Statistics Office show that although ordinary revenue for the first seven months increased by Lm19m over the same period last year, total expenditure went up by Lm26.4m.
The shortfall between ordinary revenue and total expenditure in the same period amounted to Lm68.9m, up from Lm61.5m during the same period last year.
Revenue from VAT increased by Lm6m or 10 per cent while revenue from Income Tax and from Social Security increased by Lm5.4m and Lm6.7m respectively.
During the same period last year, government received Lm12m through the proceeds from its asset sales (the sale of Mid-Med Bank) and a further Lm6m as grants.
No sale of government assets took place this year and the revenue from grants totalled only Lm0.5m.
Compared to the same period last year, total expenditure increased by Lm26.2m or 6.4 per cent and amounted to Lm434.9m. Yet, the NSO said, total expenditure during the first seven months of this year and of last year were both within the 58.3 per cent benchmark compared to the
budgetary estimates.
As expected, the major increase under Recurrent Expenditure was reported under Personal Emoluments which increased by Lm13.9m, mainly due to the salary increases following the new Civil Service collective agreement, the Lm1.50 per week cost of living adjustment and normal incremental steps in salaries and wages.
Last year government gave every person a one-off budgetary compensation payment amounting to Lm4m.
This year, government has forked out a further Lm3.9m in pensions, Lm1.8m more as State Grants, Lm2.2m more in social security benefits and Lm1.3m more to Church schools.
The university and the Junior College received an additional Lm2m payment.
The government spent Lm3.5m less on operational and maintenance expenditure, mainly through less materials and supplies
at the Health Division and on transport costs as a result of several impressed drivers taking up
regular employment with
government. Capital expenditure has increased by Lm7.8m or 17.1 per cent. MTA has this year utilised Lm1m more that it used last year. Roadworks absorbed a further Lm1.5m and a further Lm2.2m were spent on the acquisition of property.
Mainly due to the Malta Freeport debt servicing costs, capital expenditure by the Ministry for Economic Services has increased by Lm4m. The Ministry for Education spent Lm1.2m less on capital projects.