Malta: Industrial production down by 7 percent

Industrial production fell by 6.9 percent in March from the previous month, reflecting an EU-wide slump of 10.4 percent. Figures by Eurostat show that only four countries registered increases: Ireland (15.5%), Greece (1.9%), Finland (1.9%) and Lithuania (0.7%).

Production in the euro area was even more heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, dropping by 11.3 percent following a slight decrease of -0.1 percent in February.

Nevertheless, compared with March last year Malta reported a growth of 5.7 percent in industrial production, one of only four states to experience a rise and second only to Ireland where the sector output jumped by more than 25 percent. The worst performers year-on-year where Luxembourg (-32.7%), Italy (-29.3%) and Slovakia (-19.6%), scoring well below the EU and euro area averages of -11.8 percent and -12.9 percent, respectively.

Durable Consumer Goods suffered the greatest decline from February to March, falling by nearly 24 percent across EU states. On the other hand, production of Non-Durable Consumer Goods shrank by 1.2 percent. Capital Goods fell by 15 percent, Intermediate Goods by 10 percent and Energy by 3.5 percent.