Malta enjoyed the second biggest drop in its national debt among EU member states between the second and third quarters last year, the government observed today.

It said that according to the latest Eurostat figures, Malta’s debt was reduced by the equivalent of 2.7% of GDP. Cyprus saw the biggest drop at  5.1 percentage points.

Nine EU countries managed to reduce their debt but on average, debt in the EU was up by 1,3%.

Malta’s debt level is now below Germany’s and close to that of The Netherlands.

The government said this data belied Opposition claims that the debt had ‘exploded’ under this administration. It was actually in the first quarter of 2013, under the former government, that the debt rose by 3.6% of GDP, the steepest rise for Malta registered by Eurostat.