The economy of Malta is a highly industrialised, service-based economy. It is classified as an advanced economy by the International Monetary Fund and is considered a high-income country by the World Bank and an innovation-driven economy by the World Economic Forum.
What is Malta’s economy based on?
Malta’s economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing, and tourism. Malta joined the EU in 2004 and adopted the euro on 1 January 2008. Malta has weathered the euro-zone crisis better than most EU member states due to a low debt-to-GDP ratio and financially sound banking sector.
What are Malta’s main industries?
Several industries have experienced growth in Malta since the early 1990s. The principal growth industries include shipbuilding and repair, construction, electronics, and textiles. Industry provides 24 percent of employment and manufactured products account for 90 percent of Malta’s exports.
What is Malta’s biggest export?
Refined petroleum
Refined petroleum is both the biggest export and import product of Malta. The country exports mostly to Germany, France, and Italy, while Russia, Italy, and South Korea are the major import markets.
What kind of economy does Malta have now?
Thus, the economy is dependent on the human resources and foreign trade. Malta’s economy is practically driven by financial services, tourism, real estate, Igaming and manufacturing, particularly of electronics. Other significant sectors are pharmaceuticals, information technology, and call centres.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Malta?
The strengths of Malta ‘s economy are its strategic location, being situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea at a crossroads between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, its fully developed open market economy, multilingual population (88% of Maltese people speak English), productive labour force,…
How did the Maltese economy survive the downturn?
One can see how various sectors of the Maltese economy not only survived the economic downturn, but in the years which followed flourished and grew, driving Malta into economic boom.
What kind of trade did Malta have with the British?
Cargo consisted of largely British and colonial-manufactured goods. Malta’s economy became prosperous from this trade and many artisans, such as weavers, found new jobs in the port industry.
