Contrary to the claims of the Opposition spokesperson, official statistics from the Eurostat database indicate that, while at the end of March 2013 the national debt stood at €5,172.2 million or 71% of GDP, at the end of December 2014 it stood at €5,417.5 million or 68% of GDP. This means that, in terms of the share of GDP, the burden of the national debt has fallen by 3% of GDP, the government said today.

It was reacting to claims made earlier by the PN, which said the national debt shot up by half a billion in the last two years of a Labour administration.

“Typically, economists measure the national debt as a proportion of the nation’s output rather than focusing on the absolute amount of debt. However, even if one goes for this kind of analysis, it is hard to understand how the Opposition spokesperson managed to get the result of half a billion increase in the national debt. In fact, a subtraction of €5,172.2 million from €5,417.5 million yields the difference of €245.3 million. This is less than half the amount claimed by the Opposition spokesman.

Instead of focusing on the first two years of this administration, the spokesperson might have by mistake calculated the increase in the national debt in the last two years of the previous administration. In fact, while the national debt stood at €4,551.9 million at the end of March 2011, by the end of March 2013, it had risen to €5,172.2 million. This implies an increase of €620.3 million. This increase is much closer to the half billion euro increase referred to by the Opposition spokesperson.

During the last two years of the previous administration, the national debt rose from 68% of GDP to 72% of GDP. This means that in less than two years, the current administration has reversed the increase in the national debt that occurred in the last two years of the previous administration.

More importantly, the European Commission and the rating agencies are projecting that, by the end of this administration, all the increase in the debt burden seen between March 2008 and March 2013 will be reversed.

As for the Opposition’s argument that there was no investment in the country’s infrastructure, this is also belied by official statistics from Eurostat. These indicate that, from the end of March 2013 till the end of December 2014, Government spent €457.8 million in gross capital formation (or investment). This was 24% higher than the spending made in the same period under the previous administration.

The current administration remains committed to reducing the burden of the national debt through an investment-driven growth policy."