Richest 10% in Malta worth €47 billion

Recent data published by the Central Bank has indicated a significant rise in wealth inequality in Malta, with the wealthiest 10% now holding €47.1 billion, or 44.8% of the total household net wealth. 

This concentration of wealth is nearly four times that of the combined wealth held by the bottom 50% of households, which totals €12.6 billion. 

Additionally, it appears that the richest 10% in Malta own practically 90% of Malta’s business wealth. 

The new data, drawn from the European Central Bank’s Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA), reveals that since the beginning of 2010, the net wealth of households in this top decile has grown by an astonishing 160.7%. 

In contrast, the bottom half of all households saw their net wealth increase by a more modest 94.1% during the same period. 

This shows that the size of the household wealth pie has effectively more than doubled since 2010, even while inequality continued to increase: from €59.8 billion in 2010, to €105.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. 

As a result, the share of net wealth held by the bottom 50% of households has declined from 14.3% in 2010 to 12% in 2023, while the top 10% have increased their share by five percentage points, from 39.7% to 44.8%. 

The top 5% of households have seen a similar trend, with their share of wealth rising from 26.6% in 2010 to 31.7% in 2023. 

These findings highlight a growing divergence in wealth distribution, with a larger portion of the nation’s wealth increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest citizens.  

Despite this rise in inequality, Malta’s wealth Gini coefficient – a measure of inequality –has only increased slightly, from 0.54 in 2010 to 0.59 in 2023. This figure remains well below the euro area average of 0.72, positioning Malta as the third least unequal economy among the countries surveyed by the Central Bank DWA. 

The report also shows that the assets of the wealthiest 10% are more diversified compared to other groups, with business wealth constituting a substantial portion, 24% of their portfolio. 

But the richest 10% of Maltese households also possess 89.1% of all business wealth in Malta. 

In contrast the overall amount of debt and mortgages of households in the bottom half of net wealth distribution, was estimated at €6.7 billion, accounting for 65.6% of total household debt. This was up from 47.5% of total debt held in 2010, reflecting by and large an increase in mortgage debt. 

Debt for the top 10% richest remained relatively stable over the past decade standing at €1.3 billion. 

The data published in a report written by economists Warren Deguara and Janica Borg underscores the need for continued monitoring and potential policy interventions to address the widening wealth gap, even as Malta continues to experience overall growth in net wealth.