The Nationalist Party has called on the government to control unsustainable recurrent expenditure and stop squandering as it noted official data showing that Malta's debt has risen to €9,740 million, with debt servicing costs at €4m per week.

The shadow minister for finance, Graham Bencini, said the debt had risen by  €910 million in a year. The Abela government has so far run up a debt of €4,000 million.

He also noted that according to data from the National Statistics Office, annual debt servicing costs as of last December were  €214m, an increase of €41 million over the previous year.

This meant that Malta was paying €4m interest on its borrowing every week or €590,000 every day.

And in the last Budget the finance minister announced he was planning to borrow almost €1,000 more, which meant higher borrowing costs. 

Bencini noted that in 2022 Malta had a deficit of €982.2 million, which was  5.7% of GDP. That meant Malta had the fourth-highest deficit in the EU, where the average deficit was 3.3%.

All this was of concern, more so as the EU was preparing a new mechanism for fiscal sustainability. 

The shadow minister warned that the public debt was becoming a millstone for future generations. The government needed to stop squandering and control unsustainable recurrent expenditure, as it had been warned by the International Monetary Fund.