Malta registers drop in government debt over third quarter in 2012

Malta has experienced among the largest decrease in government debt across the euro area, the EU's statistical arm Eurostat said.

Compared with the second quarter of 2012, fifteen member states registered an increase in their debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2012, 11 a decrease and one member state registered no change. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (+5.9 percentage points - pp), Greece (+3.4 pp) and Portugal (+2.9 pp), and the largest decreases in Latvia (-2.6 pp), Malta (-2.5 pp) and Austria (-1.3 pp).

Government debt in Malta fell from 75% to 73.7% of GDP between the second and third quarter of 2012, but it is still above the 60% threshold imposed by the Maastricht criteria.

At the end of the third quarter of 2012, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA17) stood at 90.0%, compared with 89.9% at the end of the second quarter of 2012. In the EU27³ the ratio was 85.1%, compared with 85.0%. Compared with the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 86.8% to 90.0%) and the EU27 (from 81.5% to 85.1%).

At the end of the third quarter of 2012, securities other than shares accounted for 78.9% of euro area and for 80.4% of EU27 general government debt. Loans made up 18.3% of euro area and 15.8% of EU27 government debt. Currency and deposits represented 2.8% of euro area and 3.8% of EU27 government debt.

Due to the involvement of EU governments in financial assistance to certain Member States, and in order to obtain a more complete picture of the evolution of government debt, quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL)⁴ are also published. The share of IGL in GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2012 amounts to 1.7% for the euro area and to 1.3% for EU27.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2012 were recorded in Greece (152.6%), Italy (127.3%), Portugal (120.3%) and Ireland (117.0%), and the lowest in Estonia (9.6%), Bulgaria (18.7%) and Luxembourg (20.9%).

Compared with the third quarter of 2011, twenty-two Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2012, and five a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Cyprus (+17.5 pp), Ireland (+13.4 pp) and Spain (+10.7 pp), and the largest decreases in Greece (-11.1 pp), Hungary (-4.8 pp) and Latvia (-3.6 pp).