Impact of finance and insurance sector on Malta’s economy among largest in EU

Malta’s finance and insurance sector, as a proportion of its total economy, is among Europe’s largest, with it having the fourth highest share of employment and the eight in value added.

Given Malta’s positioning as a hub of financial services, the results will come as no surprise, although the relative figures when compared to other countries do shed some light on this important sector.

In 2021, the countries with the highest share in terms of employment were Luxembourg (12.1 per cent of the country’s business economy), Cyprus (5.7 per cent) and Ireland (5.6 per cent), according to Eurostat.

Malta comes in fourth with five per cent, ahead of Denmark, France and the Netherlands.

The rankings in term of value added, however, look very different.

The highest percentage share of value added by financial and insurance activities was recorded in Luxembourg (34 per cent of the country’s business economy), the Netherlands (31.5 per cent) and Sweden (18.9 per cent).

Cyprus comes next, followed by Croatia, Greece and Bulgaria.

Malta sits in eighth place, just above France and Portugal.

Across the EU, 4.9 million people were employed in the finance and insurance sector in 2021.

This represents 3.1 per cent of all employed people in the EU.

Net turnover amounted to €2.3 trillion, while value added stood at €1 trillion.