DBRS, a Canada-based credit ratings agency has assigned an A rating to Malta, reflecting "strong" growth performance. This is the first credit rating allocated by Dominion Bond Rating Service, DBRS, and all key areas of the economic performance are rated as stable.
DBRS noted that Malta "did not generate the financial imbalances that have plagued other eurozone periphery countries. Malta has benefited by strengthening fiscal, monetary and financial policy institutions in line with EU and eurozone rules".
The expansion of trade and travel links with Europe has provided a significant boost to Malta's growth prospects. Rising employment generated by trade, tourism and the financial sector have increased national income and contributed to rising property values.
Maltese households enjoy high levels of savings and limited leverage, a further section of the report noted. Real estate values rose dramatically in the decade before the global financial crisis, but without an excessively large increase in household financial liabilities. Although Malta's small market displays a low level of financial "sophistication" and its predominantly family-owned businesses have limited access to capital, this has also prevented the emergence of financial imbalances, positively concludes DBRS' report.
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