The Economy Ministry welcomed Eurostat’s report on retail trade in the European Union in August and a Commission report on the performance of SMEs last year.
In a statement, the ministry said Malta fared in line with the average performance of the members of the Eurozone and marginally under the EU28 group.
On a month on month basis, volume of retail trade for August increased by 1.2 per cent, up from the negative 1.1 per cent registered in July 2014.
Malta’s growth rate in volume of retail trade was in line with the euro area, which also stood at 1.2 per cent, but marginally lower than that of the EU28 which stood at 1.4 per cent.
However, on a yearly comparison, Malta’s growth in the volume of retail trade stood at 0.8 per cent (August 2014), compared to 1.9 per cent for the euro area and 2.5 per cent for the entire bloc, the ministry said.
It said that although yearly growth for Malta was lower than that recorded by the eurozone countries and the EU28, it was an improvement on the yearly decline of 2.7 per cent recorded for July 2014.
On the performance of SMEs last year, the ministry said the European Commission classified Malta among the “front runners group” of EU nations which registered concrete positive signs of recovery in terms of employment, value added and growth for the period 2008-2013.
In a report published today by the EU Commissioner Ferdinando Nelli Ferroci, Malta’s economy was said to have weathered the crisis of recent years fairly well and so did the SME sector, the ministry said.
SMEs in Malta represented 99.8 per cent of all businesses and accounted for 73.2 per cent of the economic value added and 78 per cent of employment in the private non-financial sector. SMEs in the business economy grew consistently.
During the 2008 to 2013 period, SMEs increased by 4,800 (+20 per cent) to a total 28,905 firms, value added grew at 16.7 per cent and employment in SMEs expanded with almost 7,000 jobs, reaching a total of 98,000 (+7.7 per cent).
The forecast for next year was that there would be 1,500 new SMEs, a net employment increase of almost 4,000, while value added was also set to expand.
The ministry said the government was committed to address the recommendations made by the Commission, intended to further strengthen the SME sector, which represented Malta’s economic backbone.
This would come about by the full implementation of all provisions of the Malta Small Business Act.