The latest Gross Domestic Product News Release for 2015 published by National Statistics Office show very encouraging results. In real terms the economy grew at the rate of 6.3%. This is one of, if not the highest real GDP growth rate recorded in the EU28 during 2015 (as a number of countries still need to publish their results).
Gross value added generated by the Maltese economy in 2015 amounted €7.7 billion. This represents an increase of €626.3 million(+8.9%) on 2014 levels.
The Gross Value Added (GVA) generated by the manufacturing sector in 2015 amounted to €719.9 million (representing 9.4% of the total economy GVA). When comparing 2015 with 2014, a marginal decline of 0.4% was recorded suggesting that the GVA of the sector remained relatively unchanged. Notably the GVA produced by this sector remained in line with that recorded in 2013. Furthermore, the significant contraction recorded in this sector in 2013 (-9.0%) was a one off. It is evident that the manufacturing sector whilst not growing like most other sectors has maintained its output.
Other statistics such as the industrial production index indicate that the manufacturing sector is recovering. During 2015, for each month, industrial production was in positive territory. For 8 of the last 12 months industrial production recorded increases well in excess of 5% and at times reaching 10%, in comparison to the corresponding month in 2014.
Employment indicators are also positive. As at August 2015 (latest published data), there were 20,697 full time employees in the manufacturing sector. This represents an increase of 1.3% (+267 full time employees) on the same month in 2014.
Attached table represents the main economic sectors and their respective growth in Gross Value added over the last 3 years.