Malta: Industrial production up from lowest index in a year

The Index of Industrial Production in May registered rose by of 2.9 percent, the first increase in four months. Data by the National Statistics Office shows that the total production index stood at 99.2, up from 96.4 in April – the lowest month for a year.

The gain in May was driven by a 7.5 percent growth in the consumer goods index. Production of capital goods also registered an increase of 2.3 percent, but intermediate goods and energy fell by 2.4 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Compared with May 2019, the Industrial Production Index decreased by 4.5 percent, with the biggest decline observed in capital goods (-15.0%) and intermediate goods (-8.7%). Energy fell by 0.5 percent while production of consumer goods was the only index to see an increase (+1.6%).