Statistics released by Eurostat yesterday confirm Malta's economy is slowly but steadily gaining ground and emerging from the global recession.

Malta registered a 0.9 per cent increase in GDP in the last quarter of 2009 following a growth of 0.4 per cent during the previous three months.

Theoretically, Malta emerged from the recession in the third quarter of 2009. However, economists had warned against over-enthusiasm pointing out the data should be analysed over a longer period of time due to its seasonality.

The second consecutive GDP quarter-on-quarter growth has officially confirmed the economy is out of the woods.

"After registering its first GDP increase in the third quarter, the island has managed to keep that rhythm and even increase it in quarter four.

"This means Malta's economy is back on the right track," a Commission official said yesterday.

During the fourth quarter, Malta's economy even managed to grow at a faster pace than most other EU economies.

In the last quarter of 2009, the 16-member eurozone registered a new standstill in GDP at 0.0 per cent when compared to the previous quarter.

Malta's increase in GDP ranked fourth among the 27 member states, surpassed only by Estonia (2.5 per cent), Slovakia (two per cent) and Poland (1.2 per cent).

On the other hand, other European economies such as Ireland, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary and Sweden are still registering negative growth and considered to be in recession.

The UK, facing a general election next month, has for the first time in many months registered a growth of 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter and is officially out of the recession.

Eurostat said that among the main partners of the EU, GDP increased by 1.4 per cent in the US in the fourth quarter of 2009 (0.6 per cent in the previous quarter). In Japan, GDP grew by 0.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 (-0.1 per cent in the previous quarter).