At the end of 2013, the General Government debt amounted to €5,243.1 million, or 73.0 per cent of GDP.

Last year the biggest share of debt was held by the Financial Corporations sector, with 60.5 per cent, followed by the Households and Non-pro?t institutions serving households (NPISH), with 31.4 per cent. The share of non-residents was 7.0 per cent, up from 6.1 per cent in 2012.  The Non-Financial Corporations sector held 1.2 per cent of the debt.  

‘Securities other than shares’, which includes the Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills, is by far the preferred debt instrument for General Government, with €4,813.7 million or 91.8 per cent of the total debt in 2013.  Other debt instruments are the ‘loans’ and ‘currency’ with 7.1 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.  

Almost all the debt owed by the General Government Sector is in national currency. The debt issued in foreign currencies is decreasing and last year it amounted to €0.5 million. The apparent cost of debt, which is the interest rate applicable to the whole nominal debt, was 4.3 per cent in 2013, a decrease from 4.5 per cent in 2012.   

For 2013, this is estimated at €5,725.3 million compared to the nominal value of €5,243.1 million.  The differences are explained in methodological note 2.

Tables 6 and 7 analyse the General Government debt by initial and remaining maturity respectively.  For 2013, the time structure of the debt by initial maturity shows that €1,928.9 million, or 36.8 per cent, was issued with a maturity of 15 to 30 years. This was followed with debt issued for 10 to 15 years (23.3 per cent), 5 to 7 years (13.8 per cent) and 1 to 5 years (10.4 per cent).

The average remaining maturity of total debt for 2013 increased to seven years nine months from seven years three months in 2012. In 2010, the average remaining maturity was ? ve years ten months, showing that debt is being issued on a longer term basis. The biggest share of debt by remaining maturity in 2013 is in the 1 to 5 year category, with €1,609.2 million, followed by categories 15 to 30 years  (€942.5 million) and 7 to 10 years (€855.6 million).

The Government guarantees on borrowing amounted to €1,192.8 million, an increase of €6.8 million over the comparative period of 2012.  The majority of Government guarantees are issued towards the Public Non-Financial Corporations, which account for 78.8 per cent of the total guarantees.

The data in this release are consistent with the ?rst noti? cation for 2014 of the gross General Government nominal debt reported under the Maastricht Treaty.