Malta registers third highest increase in debt levels among EU peers

Malta’s debt level has reached 57.2% of GDP by the end of the third quarter of last year, an increase of 5.7% over the same period of last year. This was the third largest increase in the European Union.

Compared with the third quarter of 2020, fifteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2021 and twelve Member States a decrease, Eurostat said today.

The largest increases in the ratio were recorded in Spain (+7.8 pp), Hungary (+6.5 pp), Malta (+5.7 pp), Austria (+5.6 pp) and Romania (+5.5 pp), while largest decreases were observed in Cyprus (-6.4 pp), Ireland (-3.6 pp), the Netherlands (-2.5 pp), Denmark (-2.4 pp), Croatia (-2.3 pp) and Sweden (-2.2 pp).

At the end of the third quarter of 2021, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 97.7%, compared with 98.3% at the end of the second quarter of 2021.

In the EU, the ratio also decreased from 90.9% to 90.1%. Both for the euro area and EU, the decrease in government debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter was due to an increase in GDP, while debt continued to increase due to the financing needs of the policy measures adopted to mitigate the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Compared with the third quarter of 2020, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 96.6% to 97.7%) and the EU (from 89.2% to 90.1%).