Malta’s growth rate has been forecast to reach 5.6% in 2018 and 4.5% in 2019.

And, according to the European Commission’s Winter 2018 Interim Economic Forecast it will be the highest rate in all the EU.

The rate for Malta will, however, be slower than that for 2017 when real GDP growth was expected to reach 6.9%.

The forecast for Malta is more than double that of the European economy in the same years and more than double the average rate of growth observed in Malta between 2009 and 2013, the government said in a statement. 

The EC experts expressed surprise at Malta’s real GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2017, which reached 7.2%. They attributed this to the external sector, driven by growing services exports.

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On growth for 2018, they noted that private consumption was expected to become the main driver of growth on the back of strong employment growth, improved consumer confidence and growing disposable income.

The government said it was committed to continue to invest for the economy to continue to be strengthened.