The Budget 2019 will maintain the momentum of Malta’s economic growth, with the financial surplus projected to reach 1.3 per cent, or 0.5 per cent if one excludes the Individual Investor Programme.

"Our unofficial target is to achieve a surplus every year, even without the revenue from the Individual Investor Programme," Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told the media.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said when delivering the Budget speech that the country’s debt-to-GDP is projected to drop to 43 per cent next year. Economic growth in real terms will be around 5.3 per cent, reaching €12.9 billion (nominal). That is almost double his first budget in 2013.

Recurrent revenue is next year projected to rise by 8.4 per cent, reaching €5billion. Revenue from tax alone is projected to increase by 8.5 per cent higher on the back of economic growth. Expenditure next year will be €4.98 billion, up 8% on this year.

Capital expenditure will rise by 26% to €662 million.  Employment is projected to grow by 3.7 per cent while unemployment will be 4.3 per cent. Inflation is projected at 1.9 per cent.

Earlier on Monday, Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said Malta was the best performing country in the EU in 2017, with a surplus of +3.5%. It was followed by Cyprus (+1.8%), Sweden (+1.6%), Czechia (+1.5%), Luxembourg (+1.4%), the Netherlands (+1.2%), Bulgaria and Denmark (both +1.1%), Germany (+1.0%), Croatia (+0.9%), Greece (+0.8%), Lithuania (+0.5%) and Slovenia (+0.1%).

The lowest government deficits as a percentage of GDP were recorded in Ireland (-0.2%), Estonia (-0.4%), Latvia (-0.6%) and Finland (-0.7).