With a 5.6% GDP growth in the third quarter this year compared to the same quarter last year, Malta has had the highest GDP growth of all countries in the EU, Eurostat said on Tuesday.

Among Member States for which data are available for the third quarter of 2015, Romania (+1.4%), Croatia (+1.3%), Malta (+1.1%), Latvia (+1.0%), Poland and Slovakia (both +0.9%) recorded the highest growth compared with the previous quarter, followed by Spain and Sweden (both +0.8%).

Decreases were registered in Greece (-0.9%), Estonia and Finland (both -0.5%) as well as Denmark (-0.1%).

In the GDP year-on-year stats, Malta was followed by the Czech Republic (4.6%), Sweden (3.9%), Poland (3.7%), and Spain (3.4%).

Seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 0.3% in the euro area (EA19) and by 0.4% in the EU28 during the third quarter of 2015, compared with the previous quarter, according to a second estimate published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In the second quarter of 2015, GDP grew by 0.4% and 0.5% respectively.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 1.6% in the euro area and by 1.9% in the EU28 in the third quarter of 2015, the same as in the previous quarter.

During the third quarter of 2015, GDP in the United States increased by 0.5% compared with the previous quarter (after +1.0% in the second quarter of 2015).

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, GDP grew by 2.2% (after +2.7% in the previous quarter).