Malta outperformed the EU in fiscal management during the first quarter of 2024. While the average public deficit across the Union stood at 3% of GDP, Malta’s was significantly lower at 1.4%. This represents a 50% reduction compared to the previous year, making Malta the top performer in fiscal improvement among all EU countries. Additionally, Malta achieved a remarkable 5.8 percentage point deficit reduction compared to the preceding quarter, surpassing the  overall improvement of 0.9 points across the EU.

Furthermore, in the first quarter of 2024, Malta reduced its national debt burden by 1.4 percentage points of GDP, compared to a EU-wide reduction of just 1 percentage point.

Eurostat figures show that Malta has not had a national debt burden higher than 60% of national wealth since the third quarter of 2015. In fact, in the first quarter of 2024 the country had a debt ratio of 50.4%, the seventh lowest in the euro area. In contrast, in the first quarter of 2013, this burden amounted to 69.8%. The highest debt burden in the euro area is currently in Greece, 160%, while the average is 89%.

Thanks to the relatively low national debt rate, the country’s administration can continue to adopt a policy of economic and social investment to counter the effects of inflation while having the financial ability to carry out the investments needed to upgrade infrastructure.

Photo: Dalibor Vilovski