At the end of 2011, the General Government debt amounted to €4,600.3 million, or 72.0 per cent of GDP.

In 2011 the sector with the biggest share of debt is the Financial Corporation sector, with 65.3 per cent, followed by the Households and Non-Profit Institutions serving households (NPISH) with 27.3 per cent. The share of non-residents is 4.5 per cent, down from 7.7 per cent in 2008. The Non-Financial Corporations hold 1.1 per cent of the debt.

The preferred debt instrument for General Government is the ‘securities other than shares,’ which includes the Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills, with €4,303.5 million or 93.5 per cent of the total debt. Other debt instruments are the ‘loans’ and ‘currency’ with 5.5 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively.

Almost all the debt owed by the General Government Sector is in national currency. However, €1.3 million of total debt issued is in foreign currencies. The apparent cost of debt, which is the interest rate applicable to the whole nominal debt, is 4.5 per cent in 2011, compared to 5.3 per cent in 2008, resulting from lower market interest rates.

The market value of the total General Government debt for 2011 is estimated at €4,924.1 million compared to the nominal value of €4,600.3 million.

For 2011, the time structure of the debt by initial maturity shows that €1,517.7 million, or 33.0 per cent, was issued with a maturity of 15 to 30 years. This was followed with debt issued for ten to 15 years (29.9 per cent), seven to ten years (9.3 per cent) and less than one year (7.7 per cent). The average remaining maturity of total debt for 2011 increased to six years two months from six years in 2010, showing that debt is being issued on a longer term basis. The biggest share of debt by remaining maturity in 2011 is in the one-to-five year category with €1,853.9 million, followed by the categories seven to ten years (€786.3 million) and less than one year (€706.1 million).

The Government guarantees on borrowing amounted to €1,074.9 million in 2011, an increase of €76.8 million over the comparative period. The majority of Government guarantees are issued towards the Public Non-Financial Corporations, which account for 98 per cent of the total guarantees.

The data in this release is consistent with the first notification for 2012 of the gross General Government nominal debt reported under the Maastricht Treaty.

These figures are supplied by the National Statistics Office.

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