The maximum temperature measured in July peaked at 39.6°C on 9 July in the midst of a heatwave reaching the Maltese Islands. The lowest temperature of 21°C was measured on both 5 and 20 July, however, the sea temperature was one centigrade warmer than the climate norm, reaching 26.4°C.

Sunshine hours of 368.3 surpassed the climate norm by 4.2 hours in July, due to the mean total cloud cover falling below the average to 0.8 oktas — a unit used in expressing the extent of cloud cover, equal to one-eighth of the sky. While July registered a mean of 11.9 hours of sunshine daily, the brightest day was July 4th when a total of 13.1 hours of sunshine were recorded.

Despite the spike in temperatures, July was not as dry as expected, with 0.8mm of precipitation being recorded throughout the month by the Met Office. July was also slightly windier than expected, exceeding the climate norm of 6.8 knots (12.5 kph) by 0.6 knots (1.1 kph).

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In a year-on-year comparison, increases were registered in the production of energy (15.7%) and capital goods (2.3%) while the production of intermediate goods and consumer goods decreased by 2.3% and 1.6%, respectively.  

In a month-on-month comparison, increases were registered in the production of energy (4.7%), consumer goods (4.55) and capital goods (2.5%) while the production of intermediate goods saw a decrease of 2.6%.

The full report with charts and figures is available for download at the official website of NSO. 

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The growth was chiefly boosted by increases of 2.4% in intermediate goods, 1.31% in consumer goods and 1.27% in capital goods. No price changes were registered within the energy sector.

Focusing on the domestic market, industrial producer prices increased by 0.89%. Rises of price were recorded within intermediate goods (2.09%) and consumer goods (1.3%). No price changes were recorded in the energy and capital goods sectors.

Non-domestic prices increased by 1.93% due to a rise of 2.26% within the non-euro area and 1.34% within the euro area.

Slower growth month-on-month

During June, the producer price index for the total industry registered an increase of 0.54% over May, boosted by rises of 1.34% within intermediate goods. However, the capital goods sector registered a drop of 0.05%. There were no changes in the energy and consumer goods sectors in month-on-month comparison.

The prices of the domestic market rose by 0.03%, due to a growth of 0.13% within the intermediate goods sector. No changes were recorded in other sectors.

In the non-domestic market, prices rose by 0.88% due to an increase of 1.11% within the non-euro area and a growth of 0.40% within the euro area.

The full report with charts, numbers and tables is available for download at the NSO website.

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In addition, the twelve-month moving average rate for June stood at a 1.62% rate, as the NSO figures show.

The highest annual inflation was recorded in the sectors of food (4.24%) and housing (2.39%). Moreover, the lowest was registered in water, electricity, gas and fuels (0.03%), household equipment and household maintenance costs (0.20%). 

The largest upward impact was in the food index, with +0.91 percentage points, due to higher prices of take-aways. While the second and the third were measured in the transport and communication index (+0.40pp) and in the housing index (+0.19pp), mainly due to higher prices of fuels and house maintenance services, respectively. 

Moreover, no downward impacts were reported. 

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the NSO website.   

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The largest upward impact on annual inflation was measured in the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector (3.7%) and in miscellaneous goods and services (2.5%).

On the contrary, the largest downward impact was recorded in the education (-4.6%) and furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance (0.1%).

The full report with charts and tables is available for download at the NSO website.  

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