Malta has the fourth highest level of government guarantees - 14.1%, behind Finland (28.0% of GDP) and Austria (20.5%) and Germany (14.3%).

The most common form of contingent liabilities are government guarantees on liabilities and occasionally on assets of third parties, Eurostat reported on Monday.

In all EU member states, the central government is the biggest guarantor, although in Denmark, Finland and Sweden there are high levels of local government guarantees.

In several countries - Belgium, France, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain – a major part of the guarantees is towards financial institutions and were often granted by government in the past in the context of the financial crisis.

• The report also showed that Portugal and Slovakia had the largest contingent liabilities related to off-balance public-private partnerships.

• The level of liabilities of public corporations classified outside general government was higher in countries with financial institutions under government control.

• Slovenia holds the highest level of non-performing government loans, followed by Portugal and the Czech Republic.

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