Malta Gov’t Surplus Hits 3.9% of GDP

Malta’s headline economic figures continue to flourish with the latest results showing a general government surplus of €436.6 million ($534.3 million) last year. The surplus was equivalent to 3.9% of GDP, figures released Monday by the National Statistics Office show, MNA reported. Half of the surplus came from the National Development and Social Fund, which is financed by income from the sale of Maltese passports to wealthy foreigners. The NSO said the national fund, which receives 70% of proceeds from the Individual Investor Program, registered a surplus of €199.7 million. But the numbers were also boosted by the central government’s surplus of €182.7 million. The NSO said general government debt stood at €5.6 billion, or 50.8% of GDP. This represents a significant drop in relative terms of the country’s debt, which in 2014 was 63.8% of GDP. The central government statistics showed that the country had registered a surplus of €182.7 million in 2017.