In the election year, the Labour Government increased Malta’s national debt by one billion euros,the Nationalist Party said in a statement on Friday.

The PN was reacting to a statement on government finances published by the National Statistics Office (NSO), which shows that the country’s debt is now approaching €12 billion.

The figure of €11,929.3 million is equivalent to more than €29,200 in debt for every Maltese and Gozitan citizen. It also means that national debt increased by almost one billion euro in a single year, rising by €937 million, or 8.5%, compared with the same month in 2025.

The NSO statistics covering the first half of this year also confirm that, by June 2026, the Government had already accumulated a deficit of €463.5 million, compared with €457.4 million during the same period last year.

According to the same NSO statistics, the Government managed to increase both the country’s deficit and debt despite collecting €582 million more in taxes between January and June 2026 than during the same period last year. This confirms the extent to which the Government has lost all control over recurrent expenditure.

Alongside the record increase in debt comes another record: the interest that must be paid from taxpayers’ money on government debt. By the end of May, this amounted to €128 million, almost €10 million more than during the same period last year.

The PN said that according to the NSO’s statistics, by the end of June this figure had risen to €158 million, nearly €15 million more than during the same period in 2025.

This also means that, between the end of May 2026 and the end of last month, June 2026, interest payments on the debt increased by €30 million in just one month.

According to the Government’s forecast in the 2026 Budget, the Maltese people are projected to pay between €340 million and €350 million in interest on public debt this year, equivalent to approximately one million euro every day in interest payments alone.

“The high level of debt imposed on the Maltese people by Robert Abela means that, since becoming Prime Minister, he has borrowed more than all his predecessors combined,” the PN said.

The party continued that a number of local and international institutions have raised concerns about this debt. Most recently, the Central Bank of Malta, in an extensive analysis of various aspects of public finances, drew attention to expenditure by government authorities and entities. According to the same report, this expenditure is often difficult to explain, while the Bank called for greater transparency over how public funds are spent.

“During a summer in which the quality of life continued to deteriorate, with relentless traffic, an unreliable electricity supply, sewage in the sea and uncontrolled population growth, the Government remained consistent in one respect: continuing to borrow more and more, while placing the burden of higher interest payments on Maltese and Gozitan families,” the PN concluded.

The statement was signed by the PN’s Shadow Minister for Finance Adrian Delia and its Shadow Minister for the Economy, Technology and Strategic Projects Darren Carabott.