General Government Balance and Debt under the Maastricht Treaty: First reporting for 2026
- In 2025, the General Government sector registered a deficit of €545.3 million, equivalent to 2.2 per cent of GDP.
- The debt in 2025 increased by €776.0 million over the previous year, amounting to €11,397.1 million, equivalent to 46.4 per cent of GDP.
- Adjustments are made to shift from the Consolidated Fund deficit of €823.9 million, to an accrual-based General Government sector deficit of €545.3 million.
General Government Balance and Debt under the Maastricht Treaty: First reporting for 2026
General Government Balance and Debt under the Maastricht Treaty: First reporting for 2026
General Government balance and debt position
The deficit of General Government for 2025 amounted to €545.3 million, an improvement of €248.7 million over the deficit recorded in the previous year. The balance is calculated as the difference between total revenue (€8,553.8 million) and expenditure (€9,099.1 million) of General Government. When comparing 2025 to 2024, total revenue increased by €736.2 million, while total expenditure increased by €487.5 million.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| General Government revenue | € 000 | 5,951,755 | 6,558,814 | 7,817,608 | 8,553,838 |
| % of GDP | 33.1 | 31.3 | 33.8 | 34.8 | |
| General Government expenditure | € 000 | 6,903,626 | 7,487,202 | 8,611,610 | 9,099,098 |
| % of GDP | 38.4 | 35.8 | 37.2 | 37.0 | |
| General Government surplus (+) / deficit (-) | € 000 | -951,872 | -928,388 | -794,003 | -545,260 |
| % of GDP | -5.3 | -4.4 | -3.4 | -2.2 | |
| General Government debt | € 000 | 9,040,437 | 9,817,891 | 10,621,098 | 11,397,076 |
| % of GDP | 50.3 | 46.9 | 45.9 | 46.4 | |
When measured as a percentage of GDP, the General Government balance was equivalent to a deficit of 2.2 per cent, an improvement of 1.2 percentage points when compared to a deficit of 3.4 per cent registered in 2024.
General Government debt increased by €776.0 million over 2024 and stood at €11,397.1 million. The debt-to-GDP ratio for 2025 was up to 46.4 per cent from 45.9 per cent in 2024 (Table 1).
2025 data
To reach the General Government sector’s negative balance of €545.3 million for 2025, several adjustments were made to the balance of the Government’s Consolidated Fund, which registered a deficit of €823.9 million, as reported in NSO news release 052/2026. These adjustments are necessary to transition from the Government’s Consolidated Fund to an accrual-based accounting approach, in line with 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 explains the transition from the Consolidated Fund to General Government sector.
The largest positive adjustment was related to time-adjusted cash transactions (€391.6 million), followed by a surplus recorded by the EBUs, which reached €126.2 million in 2025, a decrease of €74.0 million compared to 2024. Other positive transactions included the difference between interest paid and accrued (€9.8 million) and the interest received from the sinking fund (€9.5 million).
The main negative adjustments included Other accounts receivable and payable, which amounted to €147.9 million. This includes, amongst other items, accruals data from the Treasury Department and adjustments related to the neutralisation of EU Funds. Other negative adjustments included the Government compensation to the National Bank of Malta shareholders (€71.8 million), Treasury Clearance Fund (TCF) flows in non-financial transactions (€8.1 million), the recording for payable tax credits (€8.0 million), rerouted transactions within the General Government sector and public-private partnership (PPP) agreements (€4.5 million), and the aggregated surplus of Local Government (€2.9 million) (Table 3).
Reporting and updates
On 30 March 2026, Malta submitted the government deficit and debt levels for the years 2022-2025, 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 with the previous submission of 30 September 2025, the General Government deficit was revised downwards for 2022 and 2024, and upwards for 2023. For 2022, changes in the Other accounts receivable and payable category had a positive impact of €8.7 million, while updates from audited financial statements of EBUs and local councils resulted in a combined positive impact of €1.2 million.
For 2023 and 2024, revisions mainly reflect changes in the Other accounts receivable and payable category, which had a positive impact on the fiscal balance in both years, amounting to €7.5 million and €8.7 million, respectively. The availability of audited financial statements for EBUs and local councils, resulted in a combined negative revision on the fiscal balance of €9.0 million in 2023, but a positive revision of €9.2 million in 2024.
The revisions to General Government debt were due to the availability of audited accounts for EBUs and local councils. As a result, debt figures were revised downwards by €7.4 million in 2022, €8.3 million in 2023 and €26.3 million in 2024.
Stock-Flow Adjustment
The Stock Flow Adjustment (SFA), also known as the deficit-debt adjustment, captures transactions or factors that affect government debt but are not reflected in the fiscal balance. In 2025, a SFA of 0.9 per cent of GDP was recorded, indicating that the increase in government debt, which was 3.2 per cent of GDP, was higher than the deficit of 2.2 per cent of GDP. The positive SFA was driven by movements across its components, mainly increases in Currency and deposits (0.6 per cent of GDP) and holdings of Equity and investment fund shares (0.2 per cent of GDP), broadly balanced by decreases in Other accounts receivable and payable (0.1 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 (2023 edition). It covers the General Government sector, comprising the Local Government, EBUs, and Budgetary Central Government. Additionally, other government accounts, such as the TCF 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.
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 ‘Quarterly Accounts for the General Government Sector: Q4/2025’.
The EDP Consolidated Inventory of Sources and Methods in ESA 2010 is available on the NSO website.
1 Table 5 includes a list that comprises EBUs which formed part of the General Government sector as at 31 December 2025.
Tables
Tables
Methodological Notes
