Malta has second highest deficit in EU

Although Malta's structural deficit has been reduced drastically over the last year, it is still considered very high by EU standards.

According to the latest statistics published by the EU's statistical arm, Eurostat, Malta's deficit last year was 5.2 per cent of GDP, the second highest among the 25 member states, after Greece.

Eurostat said that according to results based on data of government deficit and debt for 2004 transmitted by the 25 member states to the European Commission, the largest government deficits as a percentage of GDP were recorded by Greece (-6.1 per cent), Malta (-5.2 per cent), Poland (-4.8 per cent), Hungary (-4.5 per cent) and Cyprus (-4.2 per cent).

On the other hand, six member states continued to register a government surplus in 2004: Denmark (+2.8 per cent), Finland (+2.1 per cent), Estonia (+1.8 per cent), Sweden (+1.4 per cent), Ireland (+1.3 per cent) and Belgium (+0.1 per cent).

Eurostat said that, in all, 14 member states, including Malta, recorded an improved public balance relative to GDP and 10 members registered a worsening.

In Malta, as the deficit is being reduced, the national debt is on the rise. Last year, government debt hit Lm1,401 billion, equivalent to 75 per cent of GDP and 15 percentage points higher than the limits set by the EU. A year before, government debt was more than three percentage points lower.

Eurostat said that in 2004 the lowest ratios of government debt to GDP were recorded in Estonia (4.9 per cent), Luxembourg (7.5 per cent), Latvia (14.4 per cent) and Lithuania (19.7 per cent). Nine member states had a government debt ratio higher than 60 per cent of GDP in 2004, the same as in 2003: Greece (110.5 per cent), Italy (105.8 per cent), Belgium (95.6 per cent), Malta (75 per cent), Cyprus (71.9 per cent), Germany (66 per cent), France (65.6 per cent), Austria (65.2 per cent) and Portugal (61.9 per cent).