2023 data

To arrive at the General Government sector’s negative balance of €950.4 million for 2023, several adjustments were made to the balance of the Government’s Consolidated Fund, which registered a deficit of €808.0 million, as reported in NSO news release 059/2024. These adjustments are necessary for transitioning from the Government’s Consolidated Fund to an accruals-based exercise, compiled in line with the established European methodology. Additionally, the adjustments account for Extra Budgetary Units¹ (EBUs), classified within the General Government sector, as well as the Local Government sector. Table 3 provides the transition from the Consolidated Fund to General Government sector.

The largest negative adjustment was related to Other accounts receivable and payable which amounted to €399.0 million, which includes amongst others the Treasury Department accruals data, the EU Funds neutralisation adjustments and the COVID-19 tax deferrals. Other negative adjustments were the recording for payable tax credits (€20.5 million), the Treasury Clearance Funds (TCF) in non-financial transactions (€11.8 million) as well as the rerouted transactions inside the General Government sector and public-private partnership (PPP) agreements (€8.9 million).

Conversely, the main positive adjustments included the time-adjusted cash transactions (€160.7 million) and an increase in the surplus recorded by the EBUs which stood at €118.6 million, marking an increase of €34.2 million over 2022. Other increases were the difference between interest paid and accrued (€10.6 million), the interest received from the sinking fund (€5.8 million) and the Local Government aggregated surplus of €1.6 million.

Reporting and updates

On 28 March 2024, Malta submitted the government deficit and debt levels for the years 2020-2023, as part of the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) Notification. This was done in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 479/2009, as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No. 220/2014.

When compared to the previous submission of 29 September 2023, the balance of the General Government was revised for all the years under review following changes in the Other accounts receivable and payable category. These revisions had a positive impact on the fiscal balance in 2020 (€31.3 million) and 2022 (€8.9 million), and a negative impact in 2021 (€18.8 million). There was an improvement of €19.1 million in the consolidated fund deficit for 2022 related to a reconciliation exercise carried out by the Treasury Department. Additionally, the availability of audited financial statements for EBUs and local councils led to a combined upward revision in the fiscal balance by €0.1 million in 2020, and a downward revision of €6.4 million in 2021 and €12.5 million in 2022.

The revisions in General Government debt resulted from the availability of audited accounts for EBUs and local councils. Figures were revised downwards by €0.6 million for both 2021 and 2022, and €0.8 million in 2022.

Stock-Flow Adjustment (SFA)

The SFA, also known as the deficit-debt adjustment, captures those transactions or factors impacting the government debt that are not reflected in the government fiscal balance. In 2023, a SFA of -0.9 per cent of GDP was recorded. This indicates that the deficit of 4.9 per cent of GDP increased more than implied by the change in government debt, which was 4.0 per cent of GDP. The SFA primarily stemmed from decreases in Other accounts receivable and payable (2.9 per cent of GDP), Loans (0.2 per cent of GDP) as well as Other adjustments (0.2 per cent of GDP). These were partly offset by increases in the holdings of Currency and deposits (1.8 per cent of GDP), Equity and investment fund shares (0.3 per cent of GDP) and Debt securities (0.3 per cent of GDP) (Table 4).

Further information

The data in this release is presented on an accrual basis, as opposed to the monthly news release on government finances, which reflects the Government’s Consolidated Fund and is presented on a cash basis. This adheres to the guidelines outlined in the Manual on Government Deficit and Debt and the European System of Accounts (ESA) 2010 (2022 edition). It covers the General Government sector, comprising the Local Government, Extra Budgetary Units, and Budgetary Central Government. Additionally, other government accounts, such as the Treasury Clearance Fund and the Sinking Fund, alongside the Consolidated Fund, are included. Financial transactions are excluded, and other accrual adjustments are factored in.

The official EDP notification tables that were transmitted to the EU Commission can be found in the excel tables.

Further data for the Government’s Consolidated Fund can be found online.

More information on the revenue and expenditure categories, as well as the financial assets and liabilities and debt, published in the News Release ‘071/2023:- Quarterly Accounts for the General Government Sector: Q4/2023’.

The EDP Consolidated Inventory of Sources and Methods in ESA 2010 is available on the NSO website.