Fiscal surplus reaches €85 million over first 11 months of 2017

The surplus in the consolidated fund balance rose to €85 million in the first eleven months of this year. According to the latest NSO release, this represents an improvement of €145 million, turning a deficit of €60 million in the period January to November of last year to a surplus this year.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna commented yesterday, “We have continued to register consistent improvements in the consolidated fund balance over an already successful year while our fiscal performance remains better than projections. Thus, I am confident that we will attain a surplus in accrual terms for the second consecutive year.”

The consistent improvement in the consolidated fund balance was the result of an increase in revenue of €421 million or 12.8 per cent which outweighed the contained increase in total expenditure of €277 million or 8.3 per cent. The contained increase in government expenditure came at no expense to investment since capital expenditure still increased during the same period.

Scicluna said he is pleased to note that all tax revenue categories continued to record remarkable increases with the highest increases recorded in revenue from income tax and VAT. The increase in both the direct and indirect tax revenues reflect the strong growth in jobs, take-home pay, and private consumption.

These developments continued to have a positive impact on debt developments as gross debt decreased by €123 million in November of this year, over the same month last year. As a result, the interest component of public debt servicing costs declined to €197 million, down from €206 million recorded last year.