During 2006, Malta slowly crept closer to European Union average Gross Domestic Product per capita expressed in terms of Purchasing Power Standards (PPS). After having met 69 per cent of the EU’s PPS average in 2005, Malta climbed eight percentage points to 77 per cent of the EU average last year, figures released yesterday show.

Importantly, Malta’s surpassing of the 75 per cent mark, and providing living standards continue to improve, will mean the country will lose its Objective 1 status when the time comes to draft a new budget for the EU. As such, while Malta was a net recipient of the last EU budget, for 2007-2013, it will become a net contributor in the next 2014-2020 financial perspectives.

Malta has surpassed Portugal’s PPS of 75 per cent, while leading the ranks of the new EU member states – Malta’s fellow EU10 plus Romania and Bulgaria – with the exception of Cyprus (94 per cent), Slovenia (87 per cent) and the Czech Republic (79 per cent).

PPS figures of the EU27 in 2006 ranged from 37 per cent (Bulgaria) to 280 per cent (Luxembourg) of the EU average, according to figures released yesterday by Eurostat.

The EU’s new member states are, however, slowly narrowing the wealth gap with the rest of the union, although wide disparities remain.

During 2006, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania saw the biggest increases. Luxembourg remained by far the wealthiest EU member, with its GDP per capita soaring to 280 from 248 per cent of the 2005 average, although the small state is something of an exception in that its strong banking sector includes a large number of workers who live in neighbouring countries.

Ireland was the second richest country in the EU, as measured by the survey, at 44 points above the bloc’s average, followed by The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and the UK.

The EU’s largest two economies, Germany and France, stood 13 points above the average.

In candidate countries Croatia and Turkey, the indicator was 50 and 29 per cent respectively.