Malta Statutory legal interest (Civil Code art. 1139)
Malta Statutory legal interest (Civil Code art. 1139) is 8 percent, in force since 26 Apr 1983. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Malta's general legal interest on money obligations: a fixed 8% per annum under article 1139 of the Civil Code (Cap. 16), unchanged since Act VI of 1983 unified the former civil and commercial rates.
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| Current value | 8 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 1983-04-26 |
| Official source | Civil Code (Cap. 16) art. 1139: 'Saving any other provision of law relating to suretyship or partnership, where the subject-matter of the obligation is limited to the payment of a determinate sum, the damages arising from the delay in the performance thereof shall only consist in the interests on the sum due at the rate of eight per cent per annum'; substituted by Act No. VI of 1983 (Civil Code (Amendment) Act, 1983) s. 4, which replaced 'five per cent per annum, or where the obligation arises from a commercial transaction, at the rate of six per cent per annum' with 'eight per centum per annum' — passed 25 April 1983, assented 26 April 1983 |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Malta's general legal interest is a flat 8% per annum and has been since 1983. Article 1139 of the Civil Code makes it the sole measure of damages for delay in paying a determinate sum, and article 1140 makes it payable 'without the creditor being bound to prove any loss'. ONE RATE FOR CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL OBLIGATIONS: Act VI of 1983 abolished the old split (5% civil / 6% commercial) and set a single 8%; there is no separate civil figure to look for. WHEN IT STARTS RUNNING IS THE REAL TRAP (art. 1141): where the obligation is of a commercial nature, or a law makes interest run ipso jure, interest is due from the day performance was due; IN EVERY OTHER CASE interest runs only 'as from the day of an intimation by a judicial act' — a formal court-filed demand — 'even though a time shall have been fixed in the agreement for the performance of the obligation'. A private letter of demand does not start the clock on an ordinary civil debt. COMPOUNDING (art. 1142): interest may bear further interest only by judicial demand or by an agreement made AFTER the interest fell due, and in either case only where at least a full year's interest is outstanding. 8% IS ALSO THE USURY CEILING: art. 986(2) voids any obligation to pay interest above 8% per annum as to the excess, art. 1852(1)-(3) reduces a higher agreed rate to 8% and deducts anything already overpaid from the capital, and art. 1853 makes evasive contracts rescindable — the exception in art. 1852(4) covers loans by licensed banks and loans raised by issuing bonds, debentures or other securities. RELATED BUT DIFFERENT: art. 1854 — where a borrower has bound himself to pay interest without fixing the rate, the rate is five per cent per annum, not eight. DO NOT USE FOR B2B LATE PAYMENT: commercial late payment is governed by the Commercial Code (Cap. 13), Title II, Sub-title IA, transposing the Late Payment Directive, where 'legal interest for late payment' is the reference rate PLUS at least eight percentage points — a materially higher, floating figure that is routinely confused with this flat 8% because both quote the number eight. That rate is served separately as this API's late-payment-interest product. NEXT FIXING: none — there is no reference rate, no setter and no review cycle; the figure changes only by Act of Parliament amending art. 1139. Retrieval note: legislation.mt is a JavaScript app whose /pdf paths return HTML; the consolidated text must be pulled from the legislation.mt/getpdf/<id> URL embedded in that HTML.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/mt/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/mt/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/mt/statutory-interestOther Malta series: Policy interest rate · Value added tax (VAT) · VAT registration threshold · National minimum wage · Public holidays · Consumer price index (annual inflation, HICP) · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions · Corporate income tax · Withholding tax rates · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive)
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