Malta was among eight members of the European Union which raised their debt to GDP ratio in the first quarter of this year while the majority of member states decreased it. Still, Malta's state borrowing as a percentage of GDP remained well below the EU average, EU date shows.

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 95.6%, compared with 95.7% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. In the EU, the ratio also decreased from 88.1% to 87.8%.  

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, debt securities accounted for 82.9% of euro area and for 82.5% of EU general government debt. Loans made up 14.0% and 14.5% respectively and currency and deposits represented 3.1% of euro area and 3.0% of EU government debt.  

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2022 were recorded in Greece (189.3%), Italy (152.6%), Portugal (127.0%), Spain (117.7%), France (114.4%), Belgium (107.9%) and Cyprus (104.9%), and the lowest in Estonia (17.6%), Luxembourg (22.3%) and Bulgaria (22.9%).

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, eight Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2022 and nineteen a decrease. Increases in the ratio were observed in France (+1.9 percentage points – pp), Italy (+1.8 pp), Cyprus (+1.3 pp), Malta (+1.2 pp), Austria (+1.1 pp), Czechia (+0.8 pp), Hungary (+0.7 pp) and Slovenia (+0.4 pp), while the largest decreases were recorded in Greece and Lithuania (both -4.0 pp), Denmark (-3.7 pp), Croatia (-2.5 pp), Ireland and Bulgaria (both -2.2 pp).

Compared with the first quarter of 2021, three member states registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2022 and twenty-four Member States a decrease. Increases in the ratio were recorded in Slovakia (+2.6 pp), Romania (+1.0 pp) and Malta (+0.4 pp), while the largest decreases were observed in Greece (-20.0 pp), Cyprus (-16.1 pp), Croatia (-12.8 pp), Portugal (-12.0 pp), Slovenia (-9.9 pp), Belgium (-9.1 pp), Denmark (-7.8 pp), Spain (-7.5 pp) and Ireland (-7.3 pp).

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