Government debt outstanding at the end of December stood at Lm1,077.0 million, up by Lm64.3 million, or 6.3 per cent, from the Lm1,012.7 million outstanding at the end of December last year, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

The figures are based on provisional statistics supplied by the Central Bank of Malta.

The shortfall (structural deficit) between recurrent revenue and total expenditure for 2002 amounted to Lm87.7 million, an increase of Lm2.4 million from a shortfall of Lm85.3 million the year before. The shortfall excludes contributions to the sinking fund in respect of local and foreign loans and direct repayment of loans.

During 2002, recurrent revenue amounted to Lm719.8 million, or 96.5 per cent of the revised budget forecast compared with Lm668.6 million in 2001.

Recurrent revenue therefore registered a year on year increase of almost Lm51.2 million, or 7.7 per cent.

At the same time, total expenditure during 2002 was of Lm819.3 million, an increase of Lm52.7 million, or 6.9 per cent over the Lm766.7 million expended in the 2001.

The increase in recurrent revenue during 2002 was mainly due to an increase of Lm23.9 million in income tax, (of these, Lm5.4 million are made up of capital gains from the MIA part-privatisation process). Greater tax collection efficiency under the Provisional Tax and FSS regimes also contributed to this increase.

In 2002, government received Lm27.3 million from sale of shares in MIA and of Lm13.3 million in the form of sinking funds of converted loans. These revenues are considered as non-recurrent transactions and are excluded from the calculation of the structural deficit.

Recurrent expenditure excluding public debt servicing amounted to Lm646.0 million, up from Lm614.6 million expended in 2001, an increase of Lm31.4 million, or 5.1 per cent.

The outlay on the Contributions to the Government Entities category increased by Lm17.1 million, or 32.8 per cent and amounted to Lm69.1 million. This increase included debt servicing costs of Malta Freeport (Lm3.8 million) and the wages shortfall of Malta Drydocks (Lm10 million).

The interest portion of public debt-servicing costs increased by Lm5.1 million or 8.8 per cent, from Lm58.7 million in 2001 to Lm63.8 million during the year under review. This increase was mainly the result of interest on loans borrowed during 2001 (+Lm4.1 million) and on Treasury Bills (+Lm1 million).

Capital expenditure during the period under review increased by Lm17.0 million, or 21.1 per cent and amounted to Lm97.7 million.

There was more expenditure related to sundry roads projects (+Lm2.4 million), on the Mater Dei hospital project (+Lm10.6 million), and the shipyards voluntary retirement schemes (Lm5.2 million).

Treasury Bills and Malta Government Stock accounted for Lm218.8 million or 20.3 per cent, and Lm813.0 million or 75.5 per cent respectively of government debt.

The NSO also released figures for the first quarter of this year, which show that the debt increased by Lm56.8 million during the quarter to Lm1,133.8 million.

The shortfall also increased, by Lm25.7 million, reaching Lm57.6 million compared with Lm31.9 million for the same period in 2002.

Recurrent revenue was Lm149.2 million, a decrease of 2.3 per cent over the same period last year, while total expenditure was Lm206.8 million, an increase of 12 per cent over the Lm184.6 million expended in the same period in 2002.

Capital expenditure increased by Lm10.1 million or 45.3 per cent and amounted to Lm32.5 million, mainly due to the settlement of pending bill for works and services carried out.