Debt fell from around 70% of GDP to 46.4%, despite energy subsidies and wage supplement spending.
Both endpoints check out. Malta's general government debt was 69.8% of GDP in 2013, the year Labour took office ('around 70%'), and 46.4% of GDP in 2025 — the exact figure Abela cites, confirmed by NSO/Eurostat Maastricht reporting. So the debt-to-GDP ratio did fall by roughly 23 percentage points over the period, and it did so while the government was spending heavily on the COVID-era wage supplement and on energy subsidies that have run close to €1bn since 2022 — the 'despite' framing is fair. The load-bearing context for readers: the ratio fell because nominal GDP grew faster than debt, not because debt was paid down. In cash terms the national debt is at a record — it rose €776 million in 2025 alone to €11.4 billion — and the ratio has actually edged up over the last year (45.9% in 2024 to 46.4% in 2025) as borrowing resumed and the deficit only came back inside the EU's 3% limit in 2025 (2.2%). The claim as stated is accurate; what it leaves out is that the improvement is a growth story, not a debt-reduction story.
Both endpoints check out. Malta's general government debt was 69.8% of GDP in 2013, the year Labour took office ('around 70%'), and 46.4% of GDP in 2025 — the exact figure Abela cites, confirmed by NSO/Eurostat Maastricht reporting. So the debt-to-GDP ratio did fall by roughly 23 percentage points over the period, and it did so while the government was spending heavily on the COVID-era wage supplement and on energy subsidies that have run close to €1bn since 2022 — the 'despite' framing is fair. The load-bearing context for readers: the ratio fell because nominal GDP grew faster than debt, not because debt was paid down. In cash terms the national debt is at a record — it rose €776 million in 2025 alone to €11.4 billion — and the ratio has actually edged up over the last year (45.9% in 2024 to 46.4% in 2025) as borrowing resumed and the deficit only came back inside the EU's 3% limit in 2025 (2.2%). The claim as stated is accurate; what it leaves out is that the improvement is a growth story, not a debt-reduction story.
We tested Abela's claim against NSO/Eurostat general government debt data under the Maastricht definition: the 2013 ratio (69.8%), the 2024 ratio (45.9%) and the 2025 ratio (46.4%), plus the absolute debt stock (€11.4bn at end-2025, up €776m in the year) and the 2025 deficit (2.2%, back within the EU threshold). The methodological question is whether the two endpoints Abela quotes are accurate and whether the 'despite subsidies' framing holds.
Verdict lands at True because both numbers are correct: 69.8% in 2013 rounds fairly to 'around 70%', and 46.4% is the precise 2025 figure. The ratio genuinely fell by about 23 points across the period, and it fell while the government carried the wage-supplement and energy-subsidy burden Abela points to — so the 'despite' is defensible. The deep-dive supplies the context the claim omits: the fall is driven by fast nominal GDP growth rather than debt repayment; the cash debt stock is at a record and rose in 2025; and the ratio itself has started ticking back up. None of that contradicts the literal claim, which is accurate as stated.
Did Malta's debt really fall from 70% to 46.4% of GDP
The two numbers Abela quotes are correct. Malta's general government debt was 69.8% of GDP in 2013, the year Labour took office, and 46.4% in 2025 — the precise figure in the latest Maastricht reporting. The ratio fell by roughly 23 percentage points, and it fell while the state was carrying the COVID wage supplement and an energy-subsidy bill that has run close to €1 billion since 2022. The claim, read literally, holds. The context worth adding is how the ratio fell: not by paying down debt, but by growing the economy faster than the debt — which is why the cash debt stock is, at the same time, at an all-time high.
The trajectory: down, then a COVID bump, then down again
The debt-to-GDP ratio fell steadily through Labour's first term, bottomed out around 40% in 2019, spiked during the pandemic as the state borrowed to fund the wage supplement and business support, and has since drifted back down into the mid-40s.
So the headline movement Abela describes is real, and the "despite subsidies and the wage supplement" framing is fair — the pandemic spike in the chart is that spending showing up in the debt, and the ratio still came back down afterwards.
The part the claim leaves out: it's a growth story, not a repayment story
A debt-to-GDP ratio can fall two ways — by shrinking the numerator (paying off debt) or by growing the denominator (expanding GDP). Malta's improvement is overwhelmingly the second. In cash terms the national debt has not fallen at all: it is at a record €11.4 billion, having risen by €776 million during 2025 alone. The ratio improved because nominal GDP grew even faster than that borrowing.
Two further details temper the triumphalism without contradicting the claim. First, the ratio has actually edged up over the most recent year, from 45.9% in 2024 to 46.4% in 2025 — the long decline has flattened and slightly reversed. Second, Malta's deficit only returned inside the EU's 3%-of-GDP limit in 2025 (at 2.2%), formally ending the Excessive Deficit Procedure — a reminder that the government was running sizeable deficits for several of the years in question.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. Debt was about 70% of GDP in 2013 (69.8%) and is 46.4% in 2025 — both figures are right, and the ratio did fall across a period that included heavy subsidy and wage-supplement spending. The honest qualification, which belongs in any full account, is that the fall reflects fast GDP growth rather than debt reduction: the cash debt is at a record high and the ratio has begun to creep back up. But the literal claim is correct.
Verdict: True.