Salient Points
- In 2025, the General Government sector registered a deficit of €505.7 million, equivalent to 2.1 per cent of GDP.
- The debt in 2025 increased by €789.0 million over the previous year, amounting to €11,410.1 million, equivalent to 46.3 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 €505.7 million.
Commentary
General Government balance and debt position
The deficit of General Government for 2025 amounted to €505.7 million, an improvement of €309.2 million over the deficit recorded in the previous year. The balance is calculated as the difference between total revenue (€8,646.4 million) and expenditure (€9,152.0 million) of General Government. When comparing 2025 to 2024, total revenue increased by €831.0 million, while total expenditure increased by €521.8 million.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| General Government revenue | € 000 | 5,951,755 | 6,558,007 | 7,815,343 | 8,646,363 |
| % of GDP | 33.0 | 31.4 | 33.9 | 35.1 | |
| General Government expenditure | € 000 | 6,903,626 | 7,486,289 | 8,630,253 | 9,152,046 |
| % of GDP | 38.3 | 35.8 | 37.4 | 37.1 | |
| General Government surplus (+) / deficit (-) | € 000 | -951,872 | -928,282 | -814,910 | -505,683 |
| % of GDP | -5.3 | -4.4 | -3.5 | -2.1 | |
| General Government debt | € 000 | 9,040,437 | 9,817,891 | 10,621,071 | 11,410,075 |
| % of GDP | 50.1 | 46.9 | 46.0 | 46.3 | |
When measured as a percentage of GDP, the General Government balance was equivalent to a deficit of 2.1 per cent, an improvement of 1.5 percentage points when compared to a deficit of 3.5 per cent registered in 2024.
General Government debt increased by €789.0 million over 2024 and stood at €11,410.1 million. The debt-to-GDP ratio for 2025 was up to 46.3 per cent from 46.0 per cent in 2024 (Table 1).
2025 data
To reach the General Government sector’s negative balance of €505.7 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 €176.5 million in 2025, a decrease of €3.7 million compared to 2024. Other positive transactions included the difference between interest paid and accrued (€9.8 million), the interest received from the sinking fund (€9.5 million), the aggregated surplus of Local Government (€2.8 million) and the recording of payable tax credits (€2.6 million).
The main negative adjustments included Other accounts receivable and payable, which amounted to €164.0 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), transactions recorded under the ‘Other’ category (€20.6 million), rerouted transactions within the General Government sector and public-private partnership (PPP) agreements (€9.2 million), and the Treasury Clearance Fund (TCF) flows in non-financial transactions (€8.1 million) (Table 3).
Reporting and updates
On 30 September 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.
Compared with the previous submission of 30 March 2026, the General Government deficit was revised downwards for 2023 and 2025, and upwards for 2024. The availability of audited financial statements for EBUs and local councils resulted in a combined downward revision of €20.9 million in 2024.
For 2025, the availability of audited financial statements for EBUs and local councils resulted in a combined positive revision of €56.0 million on the fiscal balance. In addition, revisions to the Other accounts receivable and payable category, had a negative impact of €16.1 million on the fiscal balance while payable tax credits were revised upwards by €10.6 million. Further downward revisions included €4.7m related to rerouted transactions within the General Government sector and public-private partnership (PPP) agreements, and an additional €4.8 million recorded in the ‘Other’ category.
The revisions to General Government debt in 2025 were attributable to the availability of audited accounts for EBUs and local councils, resulting in a downward revision of €13.0 million.
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 1.1 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 2.1 per cent of GDP. The positive SFA was driven by movements across its components, mainly increases in Currency and deposits (0.9 per cent of GDP) and holdings of Equity and investment fund shares (0.4 per cent of GDP), broadly balanced by decreases in Other accounts receivable and payable (0.2 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 (2022 edition) and the European System of Accounts (ESA) 2010. 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: Q2/2026’.
The EDP Consolidated Inventory of Sources and Methods in ESA 2010 is available on the NSO website.
1 A list at the end of this news release shows the EBUs which formed part of the General Government sector as at 31 December 2025.
Tables
Tables
- xlsx Table 2. General Government balance and debt data 16.94 KB
- xlsx Table 3. Transition between Consolidated Fund and General Government sector 19.95 KB
- xlsx Table 4. Composition of stock flow adjustment 16.68 KB
- xlsx Table 5. Extra Budgetary Units as at 31 December 2025 18.29 KB
- xlsx All Tables 66.48 KB
EDP Tables
- xlsx EDP Table 1. Reporting of government surplus/deficit and debt levels and provision of associated data 18.80 KB
- xlsx EDP Table 2A. Provision of the data which explain the transition between the public accounts budget balance and the central government surplus/deficit 19.54 KB
- xlsx EDP Table 2C. Provision of the data which explain the transition between the working balance and the local government surplus/deficit 18.45 KB
- xlsx EDP Table 3A. Provision of the data which explain the contributions of the surplus/deficit and the other relevant factors to the variation in the debt level (general government) 20.58 KB
- xlsx EDP Table 3B. Provision of the data which explain the contributions of the surplus/deficit and the other relevant factors to the variation in the debt level and the consolidation of debt (central government) 20.83 KB
- xlsx EDP Table 3D. Provision of the data which explain the contributions of the surplus/deficit and the other relevant factors to the variation in the debt level and the consolidation of debt (local government) 19.66 KB
- xlsx EDP Table 4. Provision of other data in accordance with the statements contained in the Council minutes of 22/11/1993 18.58 KB
Methodological Notes
