Country report Malta - Work Package 1 Ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013, focusing on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF)

During the 2007-2013 period, the Maltese economy suffered only slightly from the global recession, with GDP growth remaining positive, except in 2009, and consistently well above the EU average. As a result employment increased significantly and almost continuously, the proportion of working-age population in work rising over the 2007-2015 period from well below that in most other EU countries to only slightly below the average. The unemployment rate remained below 7% throughout the period but fell relatively little as increasing numbers of people, especially women, joined the labour force, pushing up the rate of participation.

Despite the growth, and to some extent fuelling this, the budget balance was in deficit right through the period, though remaining below 3% pf GDP. Government investment, however, was reduced significantly between 2007 and 2009 in relation to GDP and remained relatively low at less than 3% of GDP up until 2015 when it increased to almost 5% of GDP.

Over the 2007-2013 period, Malta received support from the ERDF and Cohesion Fund under the Convergence Objective amounting to EUR 728 million, equivalent to 1.6% of GDP and 42.5% of Government capital expenditure, representing EUR 251 per head of population each year.