The EU statistics office recently published a set of statistical articles on the Europe 2020 strategy, which is the European Union’s agenda for jobs and growth for the current decade. The Eurostat offers an analysis of Malta as of 2017.

Malta met its primary energy consumption target of 0.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 2016. One toe is the amount of energy released when burning one tonne of crude oil. It approximately equals 42 gigajoules or 11,630 kilowatt-hours.

Additionally, Malta increased its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in non-ETS sectors by 20.3%, significantly exceeding its Europe 2020 target of limiting such emissions increase to 5%. Non-ETS emissions include transport, agriculture, waste and industrial emissions outside the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the municipal and housing sector with buildings, small sources, households and services.

The number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Malta increased by 4.9% between 2008 and 2016, which the Eurostat says has moved the island nation further away from its Europe 2020 goal.

Malta’s steady employment rate increase since 2014, however, helped the island nation reach its respective Europe 2020 target in 2017, the Eurostat publication says.

Due to continuous increases in the share of the 30-34 age group with tertiary education 2008 and 2017, Malta has come within 3 percentage points of its national target by 2020. Nevertheless, a significant drop in the share of early leavers from education and training since 2008 to 2016, Malta had further to go to reach its national 2020 target, when compared to other member states.

Europe 2020 emphasises smart, sustainable and inclusive growth as a way to strengthen the EU economy and prepare its structure for the challenges of the next decade, the Eurostat says in its publication. The strategy aims to drive high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion in EU member states while also reducing the impact on the natural environment, the publication adds.

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Profit before tax amounted to GBP 17.7m, while profit after tax came to GBP 15.1m. Earnings per share were GBP 0.067.

Gross winnings revenue from the Swedish market for the first quarter of 2019 amounted to SEK 207.4m after deduction of bonuses of SEK 137.9m.

The number of active customers during the first quarter was 1,631,636. “All-time high in active customers but, as expected, profits for the quarter significantly impacted by the new local licence in Sweden,” said Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Kindred Group.

The CEO praised “strong levels of activity” across all markets and “all-time highs” for active customers and sports betting turnover. According to the CEO, investment in marketing activities focusing on responsible gambling in Sweden and football sponsorships in the United Kingdom were the main drivers of the results.

Swedish market reregulation leads to short-term margin pressure

“As anticipated for several years, the reregulation of the Swedish market resulted in significant short-term margin pressure, particularly in the first quarter. The single biggest impact came from all legacy and new Swedish customers being awarded one additional bonus under the terms of the new licensing system,” according to the CEO.

“The significant uptake on customer bonuses, especially in January and February, resulted in bonus expenditure increasing with GBP 6.6m for the first quarter compared with the same period last year. Bonus costs stabilised later in the quarter and by March, they were lower than last year with full-year costs expected to be lower than for 2018,” Mr Tjärnström added.

Gross winnings revenue, as well as EBITDA, was significantly affected by the Swedish betting duties paid of GBP 5.2m but also marketing investments increasing with GBP 3.8m, the press statement by the group says. “The total effect on Group EBITDA from the Swedish market opening in the first quarter was a reduction of GBP 18.9 million compared to the first quarter last year,” the CEO said.

Gross winnings revenue from mobile grew by 17% in the first quarter of the year as compared to the same period a year earlier, and amounted to 77% of the group’s total gross winnings revenue, while some 57% of the group’s gross winnings revenue, came from locally-regulated markets.

“For the period 1 April to 21 April 2019, the daily average Gross winnings revenue in GBP was 10 per cent higher (12 per cent in constant currency) than for the same period last year,” Mr Tjärnström added.

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The economic forecast describes picking up domestic demand replacing net exports, hence becoming the primary driver of growth as of Q2 2018. The EC talks about a “buoyant private consumption”, which they believe reflects strong employment growth, increasing disposable income and a massive accumulation of savings in the past years.

The forecast also mentions that the country’s export growth slowed due to a weaker external environment, as well as a decrease in goods export, while imports started recovering due to strong domestic demand.

“I am impressed by the European Commission’s forecast which, has once again, revised its forecast for our economy against a weaker external environment upwards,” says Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna, according to a press release issued by the Department of Information of the Maltese government on Thursday. “The Commission has downgraded the Eurozone’s economic forecast amid Brexit and trade tensions,” the minister adds.

Although the commission forecasts further GDP growth of 5.2% and 4.6% in 2019 and 2020, respectively, the pace is thought to slow down due to moderating global demand. The speed is also seen to stay reliant on the domestic market, underpinned by high private and public consumption.

At the same time, the EC envisages large-scale infrastructure projects in the health, tourism and real estate sectors fuelling investment growth, while the current account surplus might likely remain high due to “significant trade surplus of the internationally-oriented services sector,” the report says.

The EC notes that consumer price inflation (CPI) started growing in Q2 2018, reaching 1.7% by year-end, and with materialising wage pressures and expected wage growth, the figure could gradually creep up to 1.9% in 2020.

The full report is available for download at the official website of the European Commission.

The post EC puts Malta’s GDP growth at 6.2% in 2018 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

A total of 1,599 people were involved in non-fatal accidents at work in the last six months of 2018, the NSO reports citing administrative records. The manufacturing sector saw the highest number of these accidents, amounting at 282 (17.6% of the total). Another 233 (14.6%) accidents occurred in the construction sector, while 228 (14.3%) accidents took place in the transport and storage industries.

Although the number of accidents decreased by 33 in accommodation and food service activities in H2 2018, as compared to the same period a year earlier, the administration and support service activities saw an increase of 20.

Some 33.8% of the accidents at work took place in enterprises with more than 500 employees, 12% happened in enterprises with 250-499 employees, 25.4% took place in enterprises with 50-249 employees, 14.7% occurred in enterprises with 10-49 employees, 8.4% took place in enterprises with 1-9 employees and 4.6% happened to the self-employed.

The number of non-fatal accidents per 100,000 employed people was reported at 1,400. Three fatal accidents at work were recorded in H2 2018 in total, while no deadly accidents took place in the same period a year earlier.

Data on non-fatal accidents at work is provided by the Department of Social Security, while the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) gives that on fatal accidents at work, the NSO says in the methodological notes.

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

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Malta scored 91 out of 100 on Freedom House’s Aggregate Freedom Score, on which spectrum zero means the least free and 100 denotes the most unrestricted. Malta scored 1.5 out of seven in the report’s Freedom Rating, scored two out of seven in terms of Political Rights and one out of seven in terms of Civil Liberties, all on respective scales where one means the freest and seven means the least free.

No further explanation or analysis has been provided in the report about the country as of the date of the publication. However, the website states that the full report for Malta or its territory will be published online as soon as it becomes available.

The report has been published annually since 2005, the current one being the 13th publication to date. Freedom House alerts that freedom in the world has recorded declines political rights and civil liberties globally since the launch of the report.

The report singles out Hungary’s status declining from Free to Partly Free, Serbia’s status declining from Free to Partly Free, Nicaragua’s state declining from Partly Free to Not Free, Uganda’s condition declining from Partly Free to Not Free and Zimbabwe’s status improving from Not Free to Partly Free. Freedom House’s website offers further information about the conclusions of the report.

“We analyse the challenges to freedom, advocate for greater political rights and civil liberties, and support frontline activists to defend human rights and promote democratic change. Founded in 1941, Freedom House was the first American organisation to champion the advancement of freedom globally,” Freedom House says on its website about their activities and mission.

The most recent report was supported by the Achelis & Bodman Foundation, the Jyllands-Posten Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the William & Sheila Konar Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and the Fritt Ord Foundation. Freedom House takes sole responsibility for the report’s content. The full report is available for download here.

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