The Finance Ministry has welcomed the latest credit rating report, published by Standard and Poor’s, which affirmed Malta’s short and long-term sovereign credit rating with a positive outlook.

Standard and Poor’s attributes Malta’s positive rating to its strong growth performance, recurring current account surpluses driven by its large services exports, and the improving government budgetary and debt positions, and fiscal management.

Standard and Poor’s expect Malta’s headline GDP growth performance to, likely, exceed that of peers at similar income levels and stages of development. This, it adds, reflects the authorities’ commitment to growth-enhancing policies.

The credit rating report notes that Malta’s real GDP growth accelerated to 7.6 per cent on average in the 2014 to 2018 period. It also acknowledges that the structural shifts in the economy created new employment opportunities causing the unemployment rate to decline further to 3.8 per cent in 2018, the lowest in two decades.

Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna said: “The credit rating report acknowledges the Maltese authorities’ efforts to strengthen supervisory standaRernal risks to growth pointed out by the credit rating agency, we are actively monitoring such risks by promoting further diversification and registering broad-based economic growth.”