The government has set aside almost €8 million since the beginning of the year to help eight companies negatively hit by the recession.

The money varied from cash hand-outs totalling €4.9 million to €1.1 million in guarantees and €1.8 million in soft loans.

The information was made public in Parliament yesterday by the Finance Minister, who said the money helped save jobs. He did not say how many jobs were saved and which companies benefitted from the assistance.

Financial assistance was linked to the commitments by the individual companies to invest in capital projects and train employees.

According to Eurostat's latest revised statistics, the Maltese economy contracted by 0.9 per cent between April and June when compared to the previous quarter. It was the third negative quarter in a row.

The economy contracted by 1.1 per cent in the last three months of 2008 and by 1.2 per cent in the first three months of this year.