Malta’s fastest-growing industries are its least productive, PwC says
And its most productive industries are the slowest to grow
Malta’s fastest-growing economic sectors are its least productive, while its most productive industries are the slowest to grow, a new report by consultancy firm PwC warns.
Compiling data across 2024 and 2025, the firm's spring economic update says that “some of the fastest-growing sectors over the past two years appear to be the least productive,” pointing to the public sector and wholesale and retail sectors as two examples.
Wholesale and retail grew by 8.8% in gross value-added (GVA) in 2025, with the public sector growing by 5.6%.
However, both industries are among the lowest in terms of GVA per worker, the value widely used to indicate an industry’s productivity. The wholesale and retail sector registered a GVA per worker of just under €40,000, with this dropping to €34,400 for the public sector.
The only sector to register a lower GVA per worker was the construction industry, at €24,500 per worker.
On the other hand, Malta’s most productive sectors, namely professional services and the financial and insurance sector registered some of the slowest growth rates, growing at 2.1% and 0.9% respectively.
The notable exception to this pattern is the ICT sector, which is both among Malta’s fastest growing industries (growing by 6.9% in 2025) and by far its most productive, with a GVA per worker of €161,500.
Economic growth still strong but slowing
The report offers up a broad assessment of Malta’s economy, saying that while economic growth remains strong, it is showing clear signs of slowdown.
Malta’s previous GDP growth rate of over 6% dipped to 4% in 2025. While this remains well above the Euro area’s average of 1.4%, PwC warns that “the gap is narrowing as domestic momentum softens somewhat and the eurozone rebounds slowly”.
Perhaps more pressing is the slowdown in productivity across Maltese industry, the report suggests.
Gross value added (GVA) per worker only increased by 1.4% last year, a sharp drop from the 5.1% growth registered in 2024.
GDP per capita and consumption, too, have dipped compared to previous years, the report says, increasing by just 1.6% and 1.2% respectively in 2025.
This would indicate that while “economic activity in Malta always outstripped Malta’s population growth” over the past decade, things could be slowly shifting.
“It would appear that in 2025, such growth on a per-person basis is starting to flatten,” the report concludes.