Malta’s government debt has been estimated at €5,641 million in Q1 this year, up from €5,417 million in Q4 2014 and from €5,498 in Q1 2014.

This was revealed by Eurostat yesterday.

As a percentage of GDP, Malta’s government debt stood at 72.3% in Q1 2014, declined to 68.5% in Q4 and rose to 70.3% in Q1 this year.

At the end of the first quarter of 2015, the government debtto GDP ratioin the euro area(EA19) stood at 92.9%, compared with 92.0% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014. In the EU28, the ratio increased from 86.9% to 88.2%. Compared with the first quarter of 2014, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 91.9% to 92.9%) and the EU28 (from 86.2% to 88.2%).

At the end of the first quarter of 2015, debt securities accounted for 79.1% of euro area and for 80.8% of EU28 general government debt. Loans made up 18.0% and 15.2% respectively and currency and deposits represented 2.9% of euro area and 3.9% of EU28 government debt.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2015 were recorded in Greece (168.8%), Italy (135.1%) and Portugal (129.6%), and the lowest in Estonia (10.5%), Luxembourg (21.6%) and Bulgaria (29.6%).

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2014, fifteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2015 and twelve a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Belgium (+4.5 pp), Italy (+3.0 pp) and Croatia5 (+2.6 pp). The largest decreases were recorded in Greece (-8.3 pp), Latvia (-5.1 pp) and Lithuania (-2.7 pp).

Compared with the first quarter of 2014, fourteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2015, twelve a decrease and in Estonia there was no change. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Bulgaria (+10.0 pp), Croatia (+6.2 pp) and Slovenia (+4.8 pp), while the largest decreases were recorded in Greece (-5.5 pp) and Hungary (-4.7 pp).