Michael Bonello, the Governor of the Central Bank, reports that those arriving on the island for the first time often look perplexed.

“You see this place the size of a napkin. There is not much: it is just rock and buildings. There are no natural resources. How do you explain the standard of living? What do we do? Where does the money come from? This is what people ask all the time. But there is a lot of entrepreneurship and ingenuity here.

“You hear stories every day of Maltese going out, doing business, finding business: the carpenter who started out in a garage here making furniture and today has his own factory and one of his orders was for a council estate in Wales, for goodness’ sake,” Mr Bonello was yesterday reported to have said in an article by Ralph Atkins in the Financial Times.

Mr Atkins also interviewed Helga Ellul, the chief executive of Playmobil Malta.

She said Malta offers inexpensive production. When Playmobil first arrived labour costs were a tenth of German rates; today they are still less than half. But Ms Ellul says the island’s small size “meant you could get to decision-makers very quickly, which you can still today”. Construction of its factory was subsidised.

Entry into the eurozone will make life easier for tourists, while business will enjoy greater transparency and lower transaction costs, Ms Ellul said.