General government debt at the end of 2022 amounted to €9,003 million, or 53.4% of GDP, an increase of €740 million over 2021, according to the National Statistics Office.

In a statement on Thursday, the NSO said that in 2022, the financial corporations sector held the biggest share of the government’s debt with 60.4% , followed by the rest of world with 22%.

Between 2019 and 2022 the rest of the world sector experienced the highest growth in the holding of the government’s debt, an increase of 6.9 percentage points.

Debt securities, which include Malta government stocks and treasury bills, are the preferred debt instrument for general government, with €7,663 million, or 85.1%, of the total debt in 2022.

Almost all the debt owed by the general government sector is in national currency.

The apparent cost of debt, which is the interest rate applicable to the whole nominal debt, was 1.9% in 2022, compared to 3.3% in 2019. This measure of debt cost reflects the interest rates in effect at the time of issuance, and because debt is predominantly long-term, the indicator is not particularly sensitive to the current prevailing interest rate scenario, the NSO pointed out.

It said that for 2022, the market value of the total general government debt is estimated at €8,421.1 million, compared to the nominal value of €9,003.4 million. While nominal debt increased by €739.5 million, market debt decreased by €734.2 million as a result of high inflation and subsequent interest rate increases.

Almost all the debt owed by the general government sector is in national currency.

Government guarantees on borrowing amounted to €1,160.1 million in 2022, or 6.9% per cent of GDP, a decrease of €50.1 million over 2021.

The majority of government guarantees are issued towards the non-financial corporations sector, which accounts for 61.8% of total guarantees. Government guarantees are contingent liabilities, contingent on the actual call of the guarantee, and therefore these do not form part of General Government debt.