Tag: government expenditure
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Discrepancy between government revenue and expenditure growth soars in January-June 2025
Ongoing attempts by the Ministry of Finances to rebalance the budget by reducing the deficit seem to be encountering difficulties as government’s expenditure keeps soaring. According to the latest NSO statistics, compared to the period of January to June of last year, the Government’s Consolidated Fund, which serves as the central government’s main expense account,…
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PN organises a press conference on the public debt
The Nationalist Party organsied a press conference today with the Shadow Minister of Finance, Graham Bencini and fellow MP, Jerome Caruana Cilia, highlighting the rising public debt and increasing government expenditure. The PN MPs also appealed for the government to be fiscally responsible. They also noted that the government is paying significant compensation payment to…
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Government collects less taxes and spends more
According to latest NSO figures, the government has failed to collect as much tax revenue as it did during the same period last year, while its expenditure has continued to rise. From the period of January to the end of April of this year, the government has collected up to €2.22 billion in revenue, €31…
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Paying off government largesse with income tax
Being unable to control the excesses if his ministerial colleagues, the Minister of Finance Clyde Caruana is managing to balance the government’s budget by collecting more taxes, namely income tax. Being tougher on tax collection has been a hallmark policy of this Minister ever since taking office as Finance Minister and no one can contest…
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Budget 2024: Paying off Robert Abela’s election campaign
The budget announced yesterday for 2024 was practically, uneventful with two distinct stories emerging from the financial estimates. There is the story of austerity where Clyde Caruana is struggling to cap the government expenditure at these levels due to serious concerns over excessive government spending, and then there is the story of Robert Abela who…
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On inflation and saying one thing and doing another
Ever since taking office, Clyde Caruana has insisted on the principles of financial austerity as budget expenditure kept ballooning. As of last year, he began making dire warnings that budget expenditure was going too high apart from disapproving of lavish and capricious government expenditure. He also said that he wanted to reduce the deficit and…
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Pouring oil on the fire
Here’s some basic economics 101. The reason why central banks increase interest rates during an inflationary environment is to reduce the money supply and decrease demand. In a recessionary environment, the central bank would be expected to reduce interest rates so as to increase the money supply and increase economic activity to push employment and…
