According to the latest NSO statistics, Malta’s foreign trade for May came out less than the same month of last year. Malta also registered a smaller trade deficit as a result with May’s 2025 trade deficit registering at €273.2 million and May 2024 at €388.7 million.
Exports in May 2025 decreased by €78.1 million compared to May 2024. In June 2024, Malta’s exports rose by €26.3 million compared to June 2023 (totaling €368.5 M). Imports for May amounted to €638.2 million, while exports totaled €365 million, decreasing by €193.6 million and $78.1 million respectively.
However, the import gap compared to last year seems to come from the oil and minerals and the machinery category, which may also reflect a rise in the importation of generators and other electronic equipment which was imported to address Malta’s electricity distribution crisis. Oil and mineral imports decreased by €107.7 million, while machinery and transport equipment decreased by €93.2 million. Exports also decreased mostly with regard to minerals (€64 million) and transport equipment (€24 million). Chemical exports increased by €8.6 million.
Exports to the United States are hardest hit. Malta’s main trading partner is the EU, importing up to 60.3% of goods from the EU and exporting up to 36.1% of its goods to the EU. The highest increases in imports were recorded from Portugal (€145 million) while Italy recorded the largest decrease (€113 million). Exports to Turkey increased by €76.9 million while exports to the US decreased by €122.2 million.
During the first five months of this year, the trade deficit narrowed by €130.03 million compared to the same period of 2024 that reached a total of €1.49 billion. Imports were recorded at €3.27 billion and exports at €1.78 billion marking decreases of €348.3 million and €218 million respectively.
President Donald Trump has imposed US tariffs on foreign goods which are partly contributing to inflationary pressures. EU goods have an effective tariff rate of 10% with other countries like Japan and South Korea with 25%.
Newsroom
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