The general government debt amounted to €5,664.7 million, or 46.0 per cent of GDP at the end of last year, a decrease of €17.8 million over 2017.
The financial corporations sector held the biggest share of debt with 61.6 per cent, followed by households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) with 24.1 per cent.
The share of non-residents was 13.0 per cent, an increase of 4.1 percentage points over the debt held in 2015.
The Non-Financial Corporations sector held 1.3 per cent of the debt. The ‘debt securities’ includes the Malta Government Stocks and Treasury Bills. This is the preferred debt instrument for General Government, with €4,999.4 million or 88.3 per cent of the total debt in 2018. Other debt instruments are the ‘loans’ and ‘currency’ with 6.8 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.
The majority of the debt owed by the General Government Sector is in national currency. The stock of debt in foreign currencies decreased considerably over the years and in 2018 it amounted to €0.1 million.
The apparent cost of debt, which is the interest rate applicable to the whole nominal debt, was 3.3 per cent in 2018 in contrast to 4.2 per cent for 2015, reflecting the current low interest rate scenario.
For 2018 the market value of the total general government debt is estimated at €6,567.2 million compared to the nominal value of €5,664.7 million. Due to the positive performance of the debt securities in the local financial market, the market debt decreased by €116.6 million over 2017, as compared to a decrease of €17.8 million in nominal debt.
The time structure of the debt by initial maturity shows that €3,124.4 million, or 55.2 per cent, was issued with a maturity of 15 to 30 years. This was followed by debt issued for 5 to 7 years (12.8 per cent), 10 to 15 years (11.2 per cent), 1 to 5 years and less than 1 year (both at 7.4 per cent).
The average remaining maturity of total debt for 2018 was 8 years 10 months, down from 9 years 5 months in 2017.
The biggest share of debt by remaining maturity in 2018 was in the 1 to 5-year category with €1,739.1 million, followed by the 10 to 15-year (€1,529.3 million) and the less than 1-year (€995.6 million) categories.
Government guarantees on borrowing amounted to €1,071.1 million in 2018, or 8.7 per cent of GDP, an increase of €1.8 million over 2017. The majority of Government guarantees are issued towards the Non-Financial Corporations sector, which accounts for 74.4 per cent of the total guarantees.