Malta's GDP per capita 27% below EU25 average

Gross Domestic Product per capita in Malta last year was 27 per cent below the EU25 average, figures published yesterday by Eurostat show.

However, Malta still boasts the third highest per capita GDP among the 10 new member states and just two percentage points below Portugal.

It is the first time that Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, has published the figure of GDP per capita expressed in terms of the EU25 average.

GDP per capita in the new member states ranges from 42 per cent of the EU average in Latvia to 83 per cent in Cyprus. The three candidate states - Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey - are rooted at the bottom.

GDP per capita in Luxembourg, expressed in terms of purchasing power standards, was more than twice the EU25 average in 2003, while Ireland was about one-third above average.

In Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and the UK, GDP was about 20 per cent above average.

Belgium, Sweden, France, Finland, Germany and Italy were between 10 and 15 per cent above the EU average.

Spain was five per cent below the EU average and Cyprus about 15 per cent below but the highest among acceding states.

The Czech Republic was about 30 per cent below average while Hungary was lagging behind by 40 per cent.

Slovakia was just above half the average, while Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia all recorded figures between 40 and 50 per cent of the EU25 average.

GDP is an indicator of a country's total production and expenditure and is therefore a way of measuring and comparing the degree of economic development of countries.

GDP is not synonymous with the income ultimately available to private households. For example, the GDP per capita in Luxembourg tends to be overestimated, due to the large share of cross-border workers in total employment.

The purchasing power standard is an artificial currency that reflects differences in national price levels that are not taken into account by exchange rates. This unit allows meaningful volume comparisons of economic indicators over countries.

According to a report on EU enlargement drawn up by the Economist Intelligence Unit last year it was emphasised that EU membership would provide no magic wand for new member states in the case of GDP per capita.

The report estimates that it will take Malta 29 years to catch up with the EU average while it will take Cyprus some 21 years. All the other new members are expected to take between 31 and 63 years.