The Maltese are becoming wealthier, with the island’s GDP per capita increasing by 1.6 percentage points over a year to reach 78 per cent of the EU average in 2008.
On average, Maltese citizens are significantly richer than those of several regions in southern Europe and other parts of the EU, according to latest data release by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.
Eurostat compiled data for all 271 regions in the bloc.
The figures show that while still a way off from the EU average, Malta is in better economic shape than many regions in member states alongside which it joined the bloc in 2004. It is also richer, on a per capita basis, than certain areas in the “old” EU including all of southern Italy, the greater part of Portugal and areas in Greece, France and the UK.
The island’s GDP per inhabitant in 2008 surpassed that in the regions of Campania (66 per cent of EU average), Puglia (67 per cent), Basilicata (76 per cent) and Calabria (66 per cent) in Italy. The Maltese were also much better off than their closest European neighbours, the Sicilians, whose average GDP stood at 66 per cent, a full 12 percentage points lower than Malta’s.
Malta also beat most of Portugal, with the only regions doing better being Lisbon and the Algarve, both popular tourist destinations.
The north and central parts of Portugal (which joined the EU in 1986) have inferior GDP per inhabitant rates when compared to Malta.
Inner London is by far the richest region, at a whopping 343 per cent of the average, with other leading regions being the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (279 per cent), Brussels (216 per cent), Hamburg (188 per cent) and Prague (172 per cent).
Among the 40 regions that exceeded the 125 per cent level, 10 were in Germany, five in the Netherlands, four each in Austria and the United Kingdom, three each in Spain and Italy and two each in Belgium and Finland.
On the other side of the scale, the poorest regions were all in Bulgaria and Romania, with the lowest figures recorded in Severozapaden, Bulgaria (at a mere 28 per cent of the average), followed by the northeast of Romania (29 per cent).