Malta’s exports continue to recover strongly, with new data showing the island registered the biggest growth within the EU in the first seven months of the year.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics arm, said Malta exported €900 million worth of products between January and July, an increase of €200 million, or 31 per cent, over the same period in 2009.

The figure comes after Malta experienced plummeting exports last year. It strengthens economists’ views that the island is out of the recession, exports being one of the major economic indicators.

The increase was also reflected in imports, which are normally closely connected to exports. Between January and July, the value of imports stood at €1.4 billion, an increase of €100 million, or 11 per cent, over the same seven months last year.

During the period, Malta registered a trade imbalance of €500 million, a fall of €100 million.

The only two EU member states that came close to Malta in export growth were Bulgaria and Romania, which saw a still booming 26 per cent rise.

Germany and France, power houses of the EU’s economy, also registered significant increases in their exports, up 17 and 12 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, in further signs of economic recovery, industrial turnover shot up by over 25 per cent in the second quarter when compared to the same period last year and new manufacturing orders rose by nearly 33 per cent.

Figures released by the National Statistics Office showed that intermediate goods, that is, items used in making consumer goods such as steel for the production of bicycles, comprised 44 per cent of total industrial turnover and rose by 28.7 per cent.

Turnover for energy and capital goods increased by 45.3 and 27.8 per cent respectively while consumer goods turnover rose by 2.6 per cent.

Orders for capital goods went up by 40.7 per cent, for intermediate goods by 33.3 per cent and by 26.3 per cent for consumer goods.

In spite of the turnover and order increases, industrial employment actually declined by 3.3 per cent. However, gross salaries rose by 1.9 per cent, mainly due to increases in the intermediate and consumer goods sectors.

Overall hours worked dropped by 3.8 per cent.