The Royal Family ended the year with a large deficit according to their annual financial report that was released yesterday.

The royals are given 78.1 million kroner by the state each year to fund their activities, but ended up spending around 80.3 million kroner in 2012 instead.

Taxpayers can breathe easy, however, as the deficit is covered by the Royal Family’s personal assets which, after paying the deficit, stands at around 18 million kroner.

“What’s important is that our finances are balanced over a several-year period,” Søren Kruse, the royal treasurer, told public broadcaster DR. “We are given a fixed sum that is set independently of our activity level for the year. That is why we have to put a little aside in the years when we are less busy for the years when we are more active than normal.”

According to the report, the deficit can be blamed on an unusually busy royal schedule, including the queen’s 40th jubilee, a state visit by Chinese president Hu Jintao and holding receptions during the London Olympic games.

According to Kruse, the last big deficit that the Royal Family ran up was in 2004, the year that the Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary were married, when it went 12 million kroner over budget. 

According to the report, the royals’ largest single expense is staffing, which cost them 47 million kroner in 2012.

The crown's general operating costs amounted to around 12 million kroner, while administration and property costs set the Royal Family back just over nine million kroner.