Malta positioned with stronger economies - CBM governor

MaltaIndependent 30/11/2013: Various indicators place Malta with the stronger performers with a growth rate for Malta that generally exceeds the corresponding rates for both categories of countries. A similar conclusion can be drawn from the unemployment rate. Similarly the level of unit labour costs is lower in Malta than in both the weaker and stronger groups.

Central Bank Governor Josef Bonnici was speaking last night at the annual Institute for Financial Studies at the Hilton.

In the first two quarters of 2013, the Governor said, Malta’s GDP growth rate stood at 2.7%. Net exports have been the main source of expansion. The outlook is for stronger growth in 2014 as Malta continues to benefit from its competitiveness.
The economy continues to diversify, creating high value added job opportunities. While some sectors have had to downsize, there has been a compensating expansion in other sectors, such as financial and other services.

An aspect that may go unnoticed is the role of the financial sector in the resilience of the Maltese economy and its alignment with the stronger group of...read on.