Tuesday, 9th March 2010 - 11:19CET

Investment in manufacturing industry declines

Turnover, investment and employment in manufacture declined year on year while wages and salaries increased, a sample survey among manufacturing enterprises in the fourth quarter last year shows.

The National Statistics Office said that in the fourth quarter last year, turnover of the sampled manufacturing enterprises fell by 1.6 per cent to €506.9 million when compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.

This decline was mainly observed in the radio, TV and communication equipment (-11.2 per cent), the food and beverages (-15.5 per cent) and the chemicals and chemical products sectors (-8.6 per cent).

This decline was partially mitigated by higher turnover in the electrical machinery and apparatus and the publishing and printing sectors, by 66.1 and 12.9 per cent respectively.

Investment of the sampled enterprises in the fourth quarter of 2009 fell by 54.8 per cent to €16.8 million, on account of a general decline in investment in the major manufacturing sectors.

At the end of December, employment in the sampled enterprises declined by 5.5 per cent to 16,016 employees over the corresponding period in 2008. Lower employment levels were mainly recorded in the radio, TV and communication equipment sector (-23.5 per cent), the food and beverages sector (-5.5 per cent) and the rubber and plastic products sector (-5.9 per cent).

On the other hand, employment in the other transport equipment sector rose by 40.4 per cent when compared to December 2008.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, €73 million was paid out in gross wages and salaries, an increase of 4.1 per cent over the corresponding period in 2008.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Thursday, September 9, 2010. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

mark pace(on 9/3/10)

@Mario Gellel

Mhux ahjar jobs fl-IT, financial services, gaming ecc ecc ecc - milli fl-infrastruttura?

se tikkumenta fuq l-istorja tal-Investiment tal-Medavia?
Se tikkumenta fuq l-istorja ta' Smart City?
Ikkumentajt fuq l-istejjer ta' Farsons, Cardinal Health, Prominent, Methode, Stainless Steel, Hal-Ferh, Seabank, li fl-ahhar xahar kollha habbru investimenti godda u zieda fl-impjiegi?

mario gellel(on 9/3/10)

GONZI & CO== OUR PRIME TARGET IS TO CREATE JOBS WITH GOOD SALARIES.
NSO=== BIG DECLINE IN THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY WITH THOUSANDS OF JOBS LOST.
PN POPOLISTS, PLEASE TRY TO CONFORT ME CAUSE I DO NOT KNOW WHOM TO BELEAVE, IF IT'S YOUR GONZI OR GONZI'S SAME ENTITY.

laurence schembri(on 9/3/10)

Let me get this straight. According to the Prime Minister and his side-kick, investment is on the up-and-up, now the NSO, a government entity is saying otherwise.

Charles Muscat(on 9/3/10)

A recipe for disaster.

J Brownie(on 9/3/10)

Decline in the manufacturing sector doesn’t necessary spell bad news , especially for a small county like Malta where manufacturing activities create a string of significant environmental hazards and usually leave negative impacts on the quality of life of people - it effectively means that a host of other factors such as pollution levels, air quality , potable water quality, green spaces etc are factored in when measuring a nation's worth .

Of course other economic sectors such as Services , ICT and Tourism have to compensate to improve our standard of living but again large industrial productions that employ the masses and which are driven by large ‘ economies of scale’ , may have made sense in the 80 but no longer make viable economic model for Malta .