The Nationalist Party has raised concern over the rising national debt.

"Another month has passed, and once again, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has confirmed that Malta's public debt has continued to spiral. The same data also reveals a sharp increase in the government's financial deficit compared to the same period last year," the party said.

As of the end of June, national debt had risen by €1,012 million compared to June 2024, pushing the total debt closer to €11 billion - a record high. This means that in the past 12 months, the Labour Government led by Robert Abela has accumulated an average of €2.8 million in new debt every single day," the PN said.

"Alongside this record debt, interest payments have also hit a new high. Between January and June, the country paid €144 million in interest on government debt - an increase of €17 million compared to the previous year," the PN said, in a statement signed by Graham Bencini the party's Shadow Minister for Finance, and Jerome Caruana Cilia, the party's Shadow Minister for Economy and Enterprise

"Malta has never faced such high levels of debt. Prime Minister Robert Abela and Finance Minister Clyde Caruana have broken all records. In fact, Abela alone has racked up as much debt as all previous prime ministers combined."

When Abela succeeded Joseph Muscat, national debt stood at just over €5 billion, under his watch it has more than doubled, the PN said.

"Equally worrying is the sharp rise in the government's deficit, which in the first six months of this year reached over €457 million."

"While government revenue increased by €70 million compared to the same period last year, expenditure soared by over €437 million - resulting in a sharp increase of €368 million in the deficit. In the first half of 2024, this figure had stood at just €89 million."

"While these alarming figures show how Prime Minister Robert Abela and Finance Minister Clyde Caruana continue to break record after record when it comes to national debt, the Labour Government has nothing to show for it. Abela continues to offer no solutions to the major challenges facing Maltese and Gozitan families - from the rising cost of living and environmental destruction, to the health crisis, unplanned population growth, traffic congestion, and infrastructural decline."

"As Malta's deficit and debt spiral out of control and interest payments continue to rise, government ministers and their close associates are enriching themselves - as even government insiders have admitted," the PN said.

PL responds

The Nationalist Party continues to demonstrate the lack of financial knowledge when quoting national debt figures without comparing them with the strength of the economy, the Labour Party said in response.

"Today, if our country had to repay all national debt altogether this would involve 48% of national wealth. This is much lower than the 70% in the time of a Nationalist Government which ruled through austerity measures."

"Our country is one of the few to have a national debt burden below 60%. Our country has the seventh lowest national debt burden among the Eurozone countries. This is despite Malta being the only country where there was no increase in the price of energy and fuel as a result of the subsidy that the Labour Government continued to grant to the people, and that the Nationalist Party continues to tell us to stop subsidising energy and fuel," the PL says.

"In contrast under a Nationalist Government, even though debt was much more than 60%, households and businesses in our country had been burdened with the largest increase in the price of energy and fuel from among all the countries of the European Union. While the economic ratings of our country today are at the highest level, in the time of the PN Government our country got downgraded by credit rating agencies one after the other."

The Nationalist Party has neither a record of good governance of public finances and not even of its own finances, "as it is burdened with debt more than its assets," the PL said. "Instead of writing blank statements, the Nationalist Party's finance spokespersons should publish the financial accounts and explain how within a few months the Nationalist Party will be in a position to repay the cedoli."