Malta’s pension entitlements amounted to €25.1 billion at the end of 2016, around two and a half times the country’s GDP, according to NSO figures.

The data shows that the overwhelming majority of these entitlements were social security pensions, which rose by €4.8 billion between 2012 and 2016.

Social contributions paid under the pension system rose to €1.6 billion, an increase of more than €400 million from 2012.

Total pension payments amounted to €700 million by the end of 2016, more than three quarters of which was used to cover old age pensions.

In 2016, there were nearly 219,670 social security contributors compared to 82,745 pension recipients.

Meanwhile, treasury pensions - which accounted for 10% of the total - dropped by around €100 million.

The NSO said this was a result of the treasury pension being replaced by the two-thirds pension in 1979, and hence being closed to any new government employees, while those currently eligible were increasingly reaching retirement age.

On an international level, Malta was ranked in 11th place among 29 European countries (EU member states, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) for pension entitlements as a proportion of GDP.

The UK recorded the largest entitlements-to-GDP ratio with 402% followed by Austria (376%) and France (369%). At the other end of the spectrum, Denmark registered the lowest share with their obligations amounting to 96% of their GDP by the end of 2015.