Malta registers second highest GDP growth rate in EU
Abela describes figures as another certificate for Malta’s success
Malta has registered the second-highest year-on-year GDP growth rate in the EU in the first quarter of the year.
According to figures published on Eurostat, Malta’s growth rate in the first quarter was 4.2% compared to the same quarter in 2025, behind only Denmark (5.9%) and well above the EU average of 0.7%
The country also registered the joint second-best growth rate compared to the previous quarter (1.1%) together with Estonia and behind Denmark (1.9%).
Writing on X, Prime Minister Robert Abela said the figures were yet another “positive certificate”.
Quarter-on-quarter growth rates in the EU. Photo: Eurostat“Once again we are best in class. Growing at a rate 14 times the euro area average. Progressive policies are the best economic recipe,” he said.
Several EU economies contracted in the first quarter of 2026. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, four countries registered negative GDP growth, with Ireland recording by far the steepest drop at 12.1%, followed by Lithuania (-0.3%), Sweden (-0.2%) and France (-0.1%). Compared with the same quarter last year, only two countries were in negative territory: Ireland, whose GDP fell by 16.8%, and Romania, down 1.1%. Ireland was the only EU member state to register a contraction on both measures.
The latest figures come after Abela repeatedly put Malta’s economic performance at the centre of Labour’s recent election campaign, arguing that the government’s policies had delivered stability and growth.
During the campaign, he described Malta as having one of Europe’s strongest-performing economies and pointed to European forecasts on growth, job creation and low unemployment as proof that the country remained on the right track.