The General Government deficit for 2011 stood at €177.0 million, or 2.7 per cent of GDP. The gross consolidated debt amounted to €4,607.4 million, or 70.9 per cent of GDP, according to data issued by the National Statistics Office.

At the end of 2011, the General Government nominal gross consolidated debt amounted to €4,607.4 million, or 70.9 per cent of GDP, up from €4,257.7 million, or 68.3 per cent for 2010.

In 2011, General Government net borrowing (or deficit) was recorded at €177.0 million, down from €224.5 million for 2010. Last year, the General Government deficit was equivalent to 2.7 per cent of GDP, down from 3.6 per cent for 2010.

The balance of the Government’s consolidated fund, amounting to -€218.6 million is adjusted to arrive at the General Government Sector’s deficit for 2011. Positive adjustments included the time-adjusted cash transactions (+€39.9 million) and the non- financial transactions in the treasury clearance fund (+€24.4 million).

On the other hand, the main negative adjustments were other accounts receivable and payable (-€16.9 million) and other financial transactions (-€7.4 million).

On 28 September, Malta submitted its report on Government deficit and debt levels for the years 2008-2012. This was done in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 479/2009, as amended, as well as in accordance with the Code of Best Practice adopted by the Ecofin Council on 18 February 2003.

Compared to the previous submission of 30 March, the following updates were made:

– Reclassification of Property Management Services Ltd within the General Government Sector. This had a negative impact on the deficit, mainly in 2009 by €8.0 million, and also triggered a revision in government debt levels for 2009 (+€8.0 million), 2010 (+€7.0 million) and 2011 (+€6.0 million).

– The availability of audited financial statements for the Extra Budgetary Units resulted in a revision in government deficit for 2009 (+€0.3 million) and 2011 (-€3.1 million). This impacted on gross consolidated debt for 2009 (-€0.4 million) and 2011 (+€0.8 million).

– Local Councils were adjusted according to the latest audited financial statements, which led to a downward revision of the net borrowing of general government for 2010 (-€0.1 million) and 2011 (-€0.6 million). Their debt levels for 2011 were revised upwards by €0.3 million.

– Updated accruals adjustments resulted in revisions in other accounts receivable and payable with net positive impact on government deficit by €3.4 million in 2010 and €0.8 million in 2011.

EDP Consolidated Inventory

The latest version of the EDP Consolidated Inventory of Sources and Methods is available on the NSO website. This document may be accessed at http://www.nso.gov.mt/docs/EDP-Inventory.pdf.

Permalink: 2011 Government debt was 70.9% of GDP or €4,607.4m