VALLETTA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The credit rating agency DBRS has affirmed Malta's long-term rating at A, and it's medium-term rating at R-1 (middle), with a stable outlook.
The agency said Malta's economic performance had been better than the European average, with its fiscal surplus having outperformed expectation.
It said the country enjoyed a strong external position and a favorable public debt structure. Households were also found to be in a strong position, as were domestic banks.
DBRS noted that while the housing market was growing at a fast rate, it posed no imminent risk.
The agency found that Malta had succeeded in avoiding the trap of an overheating economy, thanks to a highly elastic supply of foreign labor and by growing the economic share of less capital-intensive service sectors.
In a statement published on Saturday, the Maltese government welcomed the report, stressing that Malta had placed in the top quarter for all six of the World Bank's governance indicators.
It said the rating reflected Malta's "remarkable broad-based economic growth" and the fact that Malta had experienced significant improvement in its fiscal performance since 2013, mainly as a result of government fiscal consolidation efforts, including " lower spending while supporting a tax-rich economic expansion".
