What is the official currency of Malta?

The official currency of Malta is the euro.

Malta adopted the euro on 1 January 2008, replacing the Maltese lira. It is part of the euro area, the group of European Union countries that use the euro as their official currency. Euro banknotes are shared across participating countries, while Maltese euro coins carry national designs on one side.

The change came several years after Malta joined the European Union in 2004. EU membership and euro adoption are separate milestones: a country can belong to the EU without yet using the euro. Malta had to meet the euro convergence requirements before its adoption was approved, including criteria concerning inflation, public finances, interest rates and exchange-rate stability.

The Maltese lira remained in dual circulation briefly after the changeover, but it was ultimately withdrawn as legal tender. The euro is divided into 100 cents, and its international currency code is EUR. A frequent mistake is to give 2004 as the currency-change year; that was Malta’s EU accession year, not the year it began using the euro.