Government debt amounted to €5,417 million in 2014

At the end of 2014, the General Government debt amounted to €5,417.4 million, or 68.0 per cent of GDP.

In 2014 the Financial Corporations sector held the biggest share of debt with 55.4 per cent, followed by Households and Non-Profit Institutions serving households (NPISH) with 34.6 per cent. The share of non-residents was 8.4 per cent, up from 7.0 per cent in 2013. The Non-Financial Corporations sector held 1.6 per cent of the debt. 

The ‘debt securities’, which includes the Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills, is by far the preferred debt instrument for General Government, with €4,968.5 million or 91.7 per cent of the total debt in 2014. Other debt instruments are the ‘loans’ and ‘currency’ with 7.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively. 

Almost all the debt owed by the General Government Sector is in national currency. The stock of debt in foreign currencies is decreasing and in 2014 it amounted to €0.4 million. The apparent cost of debt, which is the interest rate applicable to the whole nominal debt, was 4.3 per cent in 2014.

For 2014 the market value of the total General Government debt was estimated at €6,346.0 million, compared to the nominal value of €5,417.4 million. Reflecting the positive performance of the debt securities in the local financial market, in 2014 the market debt increased by €622.5 million over 2013, as compared to an increase of €176.2 million in nominal debt.

For 2014, the time structure of the debt by initial maturity shows that €2,630.5 million, or 48.6 per cent, was issued with a maturity of 15 to 30 years. This was followed by debt issued for 10 to 15 years (16.4 per cent), 5 to 7 years (14.6 per cent) and 1 to 5 years (10.7 per cent). The average remaining maturity of total debt for 2014 increased to eight years nine months from seven years eleven months in 2013. In 2011 the average remaining maturity was six years eight months, showing that debt is being issued on a longer-term basis. The biggest share of debt by remaining maturity in 2014 was in the 1 to 5-year category with €1,709.2 million, followed by the 15 to 30-year (€1,358.1 million) and the 5 to 7-year (€769.3 million) categories.

Government guarantees on borrowing amounted to €1,335.3 million in 2014, an increase of €142.4 million over 2013. The majority of Government guarantees are issued towards the Non-Financial Corporations sector, which accounts for 82.0 per cent of the total guarantees.

The General Goverment debt data reported in this release are consistent with the April 2015 EDP notification as published in news release 75/2015 dated 21 April.