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Malta economy reflects the financial status of the country. Trade of Malta also covers the production, distribution and consumption system of the country and is dependent on the optimum use of resources. It is said that Maltese economy extracts its monetary strength from limestones, advantageous geographic location and the availability of the productive labor force.
According to the 2007 assessment, Malta is announced to be the 42nd freest economy in the world and has ranked 23rd out of 41 countries in the European territory. The areas from which Malta acquires the highest profit include foreign trade, electronics and textiles manufacturing and last but not least tourism business.
Before 1800 most of the Malta people were engaged in the field of agriculture and fishing, in spite of significant trade. Till then, the country had very few industries excluding tobacco, cotton and shipyards industry. During war times, the economy of Malta flourished due to its favorable location.
However, the prosperity of Malta economy did not last for a long long time. At the end of 19th century, the economy underwent hard times. The primary reason behind this was probably the invention of large liners that became oil-fired and naturally had no requirement to stop in the Maltese Grand Harbor for fuel.
But with the course of time the economic status of Malta again started its recovery and the country soon changed its economic profile. With the passage of time, the country begun to invest in mass tourism that earned it a great profit. and soon after Malta started to give stress on labor-intensive exports.
Since 1987 this country derived a steady economic growth from foreign exchange that brought a drastic change in the financial status of the country. In 2000 Malta experienced a rapid economic growth and the unemployment rate also gets reduced.
Several erstwhile state-owned companies turned to privatized organizations and the market was being liberalized. Government also took an active role in the economic growth of the country.
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