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Country profile / MLT

Malta

One canonical page for Malta’s financial profile, composed from the crisis atlas, IMF sovereign-debt data, the World Bank GFDD and Global Findex, the BIS credit, policy-rate and exchange-rate statistics, the external accounts (IMF balance of payments and international investment position, official reserves, capital-account openness and remittances), and the Penn World Table’s population and GDP scale. Each section links to its dedicated module and cites its own primary source; sections appear only where Malta has data.

Latest government debt
47.4%
2024 (General govt (IMF GDD))
Financial crises on record
0
none in the five chronologies
Private credit by banks
77.2%
GFDD, 2021
BIS credit-cycle data
Covered
property
Nonperforming loans (current)
2.0%
IMF FSI, 2025

Cross-border banking exposure: how much BIS-reporting banks lend to Malta.

Economic scale

Population, real GDP per capita, and total-factor productivity from the Penn World Table, 1950–2023. A scale reference for every other section on this page, not a financial-risk series in its own right.

Population
0.5323
millions
0.300.400.500.6019542023
Real GDP per capita (PPP)
4679523
2021 US$, chained
0.0020000400006000019542023
Total factor productivity
1.0123
index, this country's 2021 = 1
0.400.600.801.001.2019582023

Source: Penn World Table 11.0 (Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer 2015). License: CC BY 4.0. Methodology

Crisis history

No banking, currency, or sovereign-debt crisis is recorded for Malta in the five chronologies (Global Macro Database, Reinhart-Rogoff, Laeven-Valencia, JST, ECB/ESRB).

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 | Reinhart-Rogoff (HBS BFFS) | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database. License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST); cite all five chronologies. Methodology

Financial depth and soundness

Depth (private credit, deposits) and soundness (Z-score, nonperforming loans, concentration) from the World Bank GFDD. GFDD values end in 2021 (the dataset’s last release year); a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the sector standing still.

Private credit by banks
77.221
% of GDP
0.0050.010015019702021
Bank deposits
14121
% of GDP
50.010015019702021
Bank Z-score
18.421
index (higher = sounder)
10.020.030.040.020002021
Nonperforming loans
3.6620
% of gross loans
0.005.0010.015.019992020
Bank concentration
89.421
% assets, top 3 banks
80.085.090.095.010020002021

Source: World Bank Global Financial Development Database (Sep 2022). License: CC BY 4.0. Values end 2021 (GFDD's last release year). Methodology

Current soundness (IMF FSI)

The World Bank GFDD soundness series above end in 2021. The IMF Financial Soundness Indicators are current: annual through 2025. These deposit-taker core indicators cover capital adequacy (regulatory and Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets), asset quality (nonperforming loans), earnings (return on assets and equity), and liquidity (liquid assets to total assets). Each panel is a standalone series with its own scale; the headline is the latest value and its year.

Regulatory capital
27.525
% of risk-weighted assets
10.015.020.025.030.020052025
Tier 1 capital
21.525
% of risk-weighted assets
10.015.020.025.020052025
Nonperforming loans
2.0125
% of gross loans
0.002.505.007.5010.020052025
Return on assets
1.2625
% (annualized)
0.001.002.0020052025
Return on equity
8.9025
% (annualized)
-10.00.0010.020.020052025
Liquid assets
39.125
% of total assets
20.030.040.020052025

Source: IMF Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI). License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF, Financial Soundness Indicators" attribution. Deposit-taker core set; coverage varies by indicator and year. Methodology

Financial inclusion

How much of the adult population (age 15+) is inside the financial system, from the World Bank Global Findex 2025: account ownership, digital payments, and formal saving and borrowing. Findex is a survey run in waves (2011, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2024), so each card is a wave sparkline with the latest reading and the change since the first wave available for Malta.

Account ownership
96.62024
% age 15+
5 waves, 2011-2024+1.3 pp since 2011
Made or received a digital payment
90.72021
% age 15+
3 waves, 2014-2021+11.3 pp since 2014
Saved at a financial institution
45.62021
% age 15+
4 waves, 2011-2021+0.8 pp since 2011
Borrowed from a financial institution
38.92021
% age 15+
3 waves, 2014-2021+2.0 pp since 2014

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025. License: CC BY 4.0. Survey waves; percent of adults age 15+. Methodology

The BIS credit cycle: the credit-to-GDP gap (actual minus one-sided HP trend, the Basel III early-warning measure), private non-financial credit, the debt-service ratio, and real house prices. One reading per year (latest quarter). No crisis episodes fall in this window.

Credit-to-GDP gap
No data for this country
Private non-financial credit
No data for this country
Debt service ratio
No data for this country
Real residential property
14325
index, 2010 = 100
50.075.010012515020052025

Source: BIS credit and debt-service statistics | BIS residential property prices. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Crisis-window shading from the crisis atlas. Methodology

Policy rate and exchange rate

The monetary-policy and currency backdrop from the BIS: the central-bank policy rate (latest reading and a 10-year monthly path) and, where reported, the real broad effective exchange rate (index, 2020 = 100; a rise is real appreciation). The BIS policy-rate set covers 48 economies and the euro area, and its real broad EER covers 63, both wider than the roughly 44-economy BIS credit set above but not the whole world. Malta is not in the BIS central-bank policy-rate set.

Real effective exchange rate
105.32026-05
index, 2020 = 100 (broad)
monthly, 2016-06 to 2026-05

Source: BIS central bank policy rates | BIS effective exchange rates. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

External accounts

Malta’s external position: the current-account balance (IMF, percent of GDP), the net international investment position and total official reserves (both shown as US-dollar levels, in billions, because the IMF IIP and World Bank reserve series carry dollar values rather than ratios), the degree of capital-account openness (the Chinn-Ito index, 0 closed to 1 open), and remittance inflows. A positive current account or net-IIP reading is a surplus/creditor position; a negative one is a deficit/debtor position. Each panel appears only where Malta has that series.

Current-account balance
7.0824
% of GDP
-10.00.0010.020.019952024
Net international investment position
20.124
US$ billion (level)
0.0010.020.030.019942024
Total reserves
1.5425
US$ billion
0.002.004.0019602025
Capital-account openness
1.002023
index, 0 = closed, 1 = open
annual, 1972 to 2023
Remittance inflows
0.022024
US$ billion
annual, 1971 to 2024

Remittance inflows are shown as external-flow context (household income received from abroad), not a FinObservatory risk score.

Source: IMF Balance of Payments and IIP Statistics | World Bank, Total reserves (FI.RES.TOTL.CD). License: IMF and World Bank, free with attribution ("Source: IMF"; World Bank reserves CC BY 4.0). Current account and net IIP: IMF BOP/IIP, to 2025. Reserves: World Bank FI.RES.TOTL.CD, to 2025. Methodology

Source: Chinn-Ito index of capital-account openness (Chinn and Ito 2006). License: research use with citation only (Chinn-Ito); not for commercial redistribution. Capital-account openness ends 2023. Methodology

Source: World Bank / KNOMAD Migration and Remittances Data. License: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank / KNOMAD). Remittance inflows end 2024; shown as context, not a risk score. Methodology

International debt securities

Outstanding international debt securities issued by Malta’s residents, by issuer sector, from the BIS: bonds and notes placed outside the home market (residence basis), in US-dollar billions. These are international issues only: domestic-market issuance is excluded, so this is not a country’s total debt-securities outstanding and is far smaller than its whole bond market. “All issuers” is the total; the government, financial-corporation and non-financial-corporation lines are its components, each shown only where the BIS reports it.

All issuers
$3.7B
2026-Q1
Financial corporations
$3.4B
2026-Q1
Non-financial corporations
$0.32B
2026-Q1
All issuersFinancial corporationsNon-financial corporations
$0.00B$2.0B$4.0B$6.0B19941996199820002002200420062008201020122014201620182020202220242026AllFinNon-fin

Source: BIS debt securities statistics (international debt securities). License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. International issues only (residence basis); domestic issuance excluded. Quarterly, 1994-Q1 to 2026-Q1. Methodology

Latest government debt 47.4% of GDP (2024, General govt (IMF GDD)). Peak 71.2% in 2004. This is below the 80.7% median at which 2000+ sovereign crises began (a comparison, not a prediction).

Latest debt
47.4%
2024
Peak debt
71.2%
2004
Sovereign crises
0
none on record

Source: IMF Global Debt Database | IMF World Economic Outlook. License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF" attribution. Methodology

Malta’s largest banks are covered bank-by-bank in the EBA EU-wide transparency data: capital, leverage and asset quality as the EBA published them →

Reading this profile

  • This page composes existing FinObservatory layers; it introduces no new data. Every figure is reproducible from the source cited in its section. See the methodology for the composition and each source’s coverage and staleness.
  • The layers stop at different dates: the World Bank GFDD depth and soundness series end 2021, but the IMF FSI soundness panel is current (annual through 2024–2025 where reported); the Global Findex inclusion series are surveyed in waves and reach 2024; the crisis chronologies end around 2016–2021; IMF debt runs to 2024; the Penn World Table runs 1950–2023; and the BIS statistics are the most current (credit through 2025, residential property to 2026Q1, and the policy rate and effective exchange rate into 2026 where reported). The external accounts reach 2025 (IMF balance-of-payments and reserves), 2024 (remittance inflows) and 2023 (capital-account openness). A quiet recent tail in one section can simply be where that source stops.
  • Sections are shown only where Malta has data. An absent section means the underlying dataset does not cover this country, not that the value is zero.