Industrial production has fallen faster in Malta than anywhere else in the EU this year when compared to 2015, new Eurostat figures show. 

The country's 8.5 per cent decrease far outpaced Estonia's 4.6 per cent decline and Sweden's 3.1 per cent negative figure. 

Malta's figure ran contrary to the general trend across EU member states, with Eurostat numbers showing that industrial production rose by 0.5 per cent across member states and 0.4 per cent in the eurozone this June when compared to June 2015. 

Eurostat put the overall increase across member states down to production of capital goods rising by 1.4 per cent, durable consumer goods by 1.3 per cent, non-durable consumer goods by 0.8 per cent and intermediate goods by 0.3 per cent. 

Performance was similar across the eurozone, with production of capital goods rising by 1.1 per cent, both durable consumer goods and non-durable consumer goods up by 0.9 per cent and intermediate goods rising 0.4 per cent. 

Energy production fell by 3.1 per cent across the EU28 and 3.5 per cent in the eurozone. 

The highest increases in industrial production when compared to June last year were registered in Latvia (+7.9 per cent), Greece (+7.6 per cent) and Slovenia (+6.1 per cent). 

Other statistics released by Eurostat showed that GDP growth across the European Union and eurozone rose by 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent during the second quarter of the year when compared to Q1.

When compared to the same period last year, GDP grew at a faster clip, rising by 1.8 per cent across all member states and 1.6 per cent in the eurozone.