Malta's economy might be booming, but new EU statistics show that in terms of material welfare local households continue to lag the European average. 

Eurostat figures released today show that while Malta's GDP per capita is now 95 per cent of the EU average, locals' Actual Individual Consumption remains 20 per cent below average.  

AIC consists of goods and services actually consumed by individuals, irrespective of whether these goods and services are purchased and paid for by households, by government or by non-profit organisations.

Malta's AIC per capita score of 81 (with the EU average set at 100 and the eurozone benchmark at 105) places the country 17th among the 27 member states. Portugal, Lithuania, Spain and Cyprus all have a lower GDP per capita than Malta but rank higher on the AIC index.  

Luxembourg, with an AIC score of 132 and GDP per capita more than 2.6 times the EU average, tops both indices. Bulgaria, with an AIC score of 53 and GDP per capita 48 per cent the EU average, sits at the bottom of the both tables.

Luxembourg's disproportionately high GDP per capita figure - Germany, with a GDP per capita 1.2 times the EU average, is second - is due to its large share of cross-border workers in total employment, who contribute to GDP but are not included in GDP per capita calculations. 

Germany and Austria's AIC is around 20 per cent above the average, followed by the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Sweden which all recorded levels between 10 per cent and 15 per cent above the EU average.

Six member states recorded AIC per capita about 30 per cent or more below the EU average. Estonia, Latvia, Hungary and Romania were between around 30 per cent and 40 per cent below, while Croatia had AIC per capita just over 40 per cent below the EU average and Bulgaria was 53 per cent below.

Figures for AIC are expressed in purchasing power parity - an artificial currency unit that eliminates price level differences between countries and allows for meaningful comparisons of economic indicators between nations.