The Gross Value Added at basic prices in Malta and Gozo and Comino in 2022 reached €15,454.5m and €658.9m respectively, the National Statistics Office detailed in its 2024 Regional Statistics report. That GVA reflected increases of 15.3% and 14.8% over 2021, it added.
All industries in the Malta region registered increases in GVA for 2022 when compared to 2021, with the largest increase of 43.1% being recorded in the industries of wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; transportation and storage and accommodation and food service activities. These industries also accounted for the largest share of the GVA for the region, at 18.8%, the NSO said. It added that in terms of the country as a whole, these industries accounted for 18% of the GVA, still the largest share.
The industries comprising professional, scientific and technical activities, and administrative and support service activities, contributed to the second largest share of the region’s GVA at 16.4%. These industries registered a GVA growth of 15% when compared to 2021. On a national level, these industries still held the second-largest share at 15.7% in 2022.
In terms of which industries contributed the least to the national GVA from that time, the NSO said that these were the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries, which contributed 0.8%.
Looking at the region of Gozo and Comino, the majority of industries registered increases in GVA for 2022. The industries which did not register increases were the industries of agriculture, forestry, and fishing, as well as financial and insurance activities.
The industries of public administration and defence; compulsory social security; education; human health and social work activities accounted for the highest share of the region’s GVA at 24.5% and registered an increase of 6.1% over 2021. These industries were the region’s largest contributors to the national GVA, having contributed 1%.
Having said that, the industries comprising wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; transportation and storage; accommodation and food service activities, which accounted for the second-highest share of the region’s GVA at 21.2%, actually registered the largest growth over 2021, at 38.1%. These industries contributed 0.9% of the national GVA.
The NSO said that in 2022, the GDP at market prices in the region of Malta was estimated at €16,717.4m, while for the region of Gozo and Comino it was €712.7m, which it said corresponded to a contribution of 95.8% and 4.1% respectively to the national GDP at market prices.
It continued that although employment increased year-on-year in both regions, employment growth lagged GDP except for the year 2020 where the rate of change in GDP was negative across both regions.
The NSO report states that in 2022, GDP per capita at market prices decreased slightly in both regions. In the Malta region, the per capita GDP at market prices was 103.5% of the national average. In Gozo and Comino it was 55.1%. The NSO said that the per capita regional GDP does not reflect the income available to private households, but that it strictly relates to the economic activity prevailing in each region.
Regarding Malta’s GDP per capita at market prices as a percentage of the national, the NSO said that this increased slightly from 103.4% in 2017 to 103.5% in 2022, while in Gozo and Comino it decreased from 55.5% to 55.1% in the same period.
Detailing active business units within the report, the NSO said that in 2022 the total active business population at the local unit level within the statistical business register for the country amounted to 57,526. It said that this was an increase of 1.1% from 2021, which amounts to 605 additional active units.
Most of the business units, at 93.7%, employed between 0 to nine persons and were classified as micro units. Small units employing between 10 to 49 persons amounted to 2,986, or 5.2%, while medium units employing between 50 to 249 persons amounted to 568 units, or 1%. Large businesses employing 250 persons or more were the remainder, it said.
The highest overall change in the number of active enterprises at the local unit level during 2022 occurred among businesses which employed between 50 and 249 persons, the NSO said, as this increased by 8.8% from 2021.