Malta’s economic growth is expected to reach “pre-crisis level” next year, Edward Scicluna said on Friday evening.

Addressing a dinner event organised by the institute of financial services, the central bank governor said the government’s economic aid package during the pandemic had been generous.

“The rewards are there for all to see. Not just more tourists, but also low unemployment rates, higher consumer expenditure, and higher value added in most of all the other economic sectors”.

Scicluna said the gradual withdrawal of this economic support is expected to be quite challenging, just like the European central bank’s eventual reduction of its own asset purchase programme.

He said the constant challenges of labour shortages, supply bottlenecks, rising commodity prices, including energy prices, meant withdrawing fiscal support, in particular, was no mean feat.

Scicluna said despite these challenging times, the central bank will be making significant upward revisions to its economic projections, which will be published later this month.

He said the upward revisions will be based on better than expected recent economic and financial statistical data.

"We still expect the GDP to return to pre-crisis levels next year,” Scicluna said.

The central bank governor said domestic demand, the strong performance of the labour market and high liquidity levels in the private sector were all pushing the economy forward.

He added that the loan moratorium scheme had been practically phased out, and the 2022 budget is expected to boost both public and private investment and consumption.

On Malta’s anti-money laundering challenges, Scicluna said all stakeholders and practitioners in the broader context - and not just the banks, need to do their part and strive to achieve higher standards.