Figures released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) show that the deficit on the Consolidated Fund last year was less than €433 million. This represented an improvement of €373 million on the deficit recorded in 2023. Furthermore, the result achieved last year was the best financial result for the Government since 2019.
The figures published by the NSO confirm that the Government not only achieved the targets announced in the Budget but also fared much better than forecast. In fact, the Consolidated Fund deficit for 2024 was supposed to be €909 million. This improvement occurred because the Government’s revenue last year was much greater than forecast. So much so that instead of the Government bringing in €7,188 million, the revenue was €7,860 million.
The biggest source of improvement in Government revenue was income tax. In fact, last year the Government managed to collect for the first time around €3.4 billion from income tax, or almost a billion euros more than the previous year. At the same time, revenue from VAT and stamp duty increased significantly. This is confirmation of how much the Maltese economy grew last year. So much so that the gross domestic product reached a record figure of €22.5 billion.
The strong improvement in Government finances occurred despite the fact that in 2024 we had a record capital expenditure, which reached the figure of €1.1 billion, or 14% more than in 2023. The majority of this increase was to strengthen the energy distribution system in our country. At the same time, last year there were very strong increases in social benefits, with an increase of €168 million, as well as in the conditions of public service workers, with an increase of €216 million.
The Government also had an extraordinary expense of €106 million so that our country could have a national airline. Because the deficit on the Consolidated Fund was lower than forecast, the Government needed to borrow less than planned and the Government’s debt burden remained at levels similar to those of 2023. .
