2013: Government deficit at €202 million (2.7% of GDP), debt at €5.2 billion (69.8%)

Tuesday, 21 October 2014, 11:09 Last update: about 10 years ago

The General Government deﬁcit for 2013 stood at €202.0 million, or 2.7 per cent of GDP. The gross consolidated debt amounted to €5,241.0 million, or 69.8 per cent of GDP.

Deﬁcit and Debt Positions

In 2013, General Government net borrowing (or deﬁcit) was recorded at €202.0 million, down from €263.2 million for 2012. Last year, the General Government deﬁ cit was equivalent to 2.7 per cent of GDP, down from 3.7 per cent for 2012.

At the end of 2013, the General Government nominal gross consolidated debt amounted to €5,241.0 million, or 69.8 per cent of GDP, up from €4,871.9 million, or 67.9 per cent for 2012.

Reporting and Updates

On 30 September 2014, Malta submitted its report on government deﬁ cit and debt levels for the years 2010-2013. This was done in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 479/2009, as amended, as well as in accordance with the Code of Best Practice adopted by the Ecoﬁ n Council on 18 February 2003. This was the ﬁ rst transmission using the ESA 2010 methodology.

2013 data

To arrive at the General Government Sector's deﬁ ct for 2013, adjustments are made to the balance of the Government's consolidated fund, which amounted to -€223.1 million. Positive adjustments included the time-adjusted cash transactions (€41.9 million), other accounts receivable and payable (€26.8 million), and the non-ﬁ nancial transactions in the treasury clearance fund (€4.9 million). On the other hand, the main negative adjustments were the equity injection to the national air carrier (€40.0 million), the net borrowing of Extra Budgetary Units (€11.4 million), interest received not included in the consolidated fund (€2.8 million) and the adjustment for stock premium proceeds (€1.6 million).

Stock Flow Adjustment

The Stock Flow Adjustment (SFA) is the difference between the change in the stock of government debt and the ﬂ ow of annual government deﬁ cit/surplus. Deﬁ cits normally contribute to an increase in debt levels, while surpluses reduce them. However, the change in government debt also reﬂ ects other elements. As shown in table 3, in 2013, a positive SFA of 2.2 per cent of GDP means that the debt increased more than implied by the deﬁ cit. This rise in debt was the result of an increase in other accounts payable, loans, equity and investment fund shares and other adjustments which do not appear in the deﬁ cit ﬁ gures. Conversely, the decision to utilise liquidity instead of resorting to further borrowing resulted in lower holdings of currency and deposits and hence a reducing effect on SFA.