The construction sector grew by 10.3 per cent in 2018, beating the services industry, new figures released on Friday show.

The statistics, released by the National Statistics Office, give an indication of how – and where – Malta’s economy grew throughout that year.

During 2018, Gross Value Added (GVA) increased by €832.4 million or 8.3 per cent when compared to 2017.

Domestic demand was behind most of the 6.6 per cent GDP growth registered over the 12 months of 2018, contributing 5.1 per cent. External demand made up the rest.

Exports of goods and services increased by 4.3 per cent in nominal terms and 2.1 per cent in volume terms. Imports of goods and services increased by 3.6 per cent in nominal terms and by 1.3 per cent in volume terms.

Malta’s construction sector grew by 10.3 per cent, or €37.1 million, and is now a €400 million industry. In 2011, it stood at just under €300m.

Real estate activities grew even faster, reaching €526m from the €466m the year before.

Arts, entertainment and recreation, repair of household goods and other services registered an increase of 11.3 per cent to reach €1.6 billion while administrative and support service activities – another €1.6 billion sector - increased by €145.2 million or 9.8 per cent.

The largest single increase was in the agriculture and fishing sector, which grew by a massive 24.7 per cent. That increase in what is a small sector (€111 million) however masks a steep decline in 2017, and the sector remains smaller than it was in 2016.