EU expects Maltese economy to grow fastest in Europe in 2024
The EU projects Malta’s economy to grow by 4.5% in 2024, the fastest in Europe, driven by strong tourism, financial services, and digital sectors.
Malta is set to enjoy the strongest economic growth across all EU member states this year and next, even though it will moderate from 2022, according to the autumn forecast of the European Commission issued on 15 November.
The Commission said the island’s GDP growth was expected to reach 4% this year, down from 6.9% in 2022. Malta was the only member state to reach 4%. Romania and Ireland came second and third with projected GDP growth of growth of 3.1% and 3% respectively. Poland (2.7%) and Cyprus (2.6%) completed the top five.
The Commission said private consumption had decelerated slightly in Malta due to higher inflation while investment had decreased against the exceptional surge in aviation sector investment in 2022. However economic growth was forecast to remain robust at 4.0% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2025.
The tourism sector continues to rebound strongly, already exceeding the pre-pandemic levels, with further growth prospects in 2024 and 2025.
The Commission said Malta was expected to maintain a high pace of employment and population growth, a key factor driving the outlook for consumption despite the expected weak recovery in real wages. This increase was fuelled by strong labour demand which increased across all sectors of the economy, both public and private, and was especially strong in tourism and administrative services.
The labour force was also set to continue growing at a robust pace in 2024 and 2025 in line with population growth as the country continues to attract foreign workers. Malta’s unemployment rate fell to 2.9% in 2022 and is expected to fall further to 2.7% in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
