In the first six months of 2021, 17,849 cases of Covid-19 were detected, and 201 persons passed away while Covid-19 positive, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

"When compared to 2020, there were more new cases diagnosed in the first half of 2021 than were detected in the corresponding period of 2020. March 2021 had the highest number of new cases out of all the months since the start of the pandemic, with 6,551 cases. It was also the deadliest month in the first half of this year with 77 persons passing away while Covid-19 positive."

Tourism

The tourism industry was predominantly hit, largely as a result of travel restrictions and a reduction in demand among travellers, the NSO said.

"Although the number of inbound tourists started to increase again during the second quarter of 2021, it still fell short of the levels recorded in 2019 before Covid-19 hit. Given that the pandemic was first detected on the Maltese Islands in March 2020, total inbound tourists in the first half of 2021 were 62% less than what was recorded in the first six months of last year and amounted to 139,687. This was 88% lower than the level recorded in the corresponding period of 2019."

"In addition, the total nights spent were lower than 2020 by 31% and down by 80% from 2019. Concurrently, the total tourism expenditure went down by 46 and 86 per cent when compared to 2020 and 2019, respectively," the NSO said.

 Economy, Public Finances, and Businesses

During the period under review, the balance of trade in goods deteriorated slightly and was recorded at a deficit of €1,314 billion from a deficit of €1,293 billion registered in the same period the previous year.

"This was the result of a decline in imports which was entirely outweighed by lower exports. With regard to quarterly developments, both exports and imports exhibited increases in the second quarter of this year when compared to 2020 amounting to €85 million and €313 million respectively. This development took place after declines in both exports and imports were recorded during the first quarter of 2021 when compared to a year before."

With reference to the impact of Covid-19 on the main macroeconomic indicators, the NSO said that the first half of 2021 showed an improvement in the Government Consolidated Fund with a decline in the deficit of nearly €47 million.

"This was the result of an increase in deficit by €235 million in the first quarter of 2021 when compared to a year before, that was offset by a decline of €282 million in the second quarter of the year. In addition, Government Debt registered an increase of 22% over 2020, reaching almost eight billion euro in 2021."

"With reference to Government's expenditure on Social Security Benefits, an increase can be observed during the period under review in the Covid-19 Business Assistance Programme and the Economic regeneration voucher scheme. On the other hand, total outlay on the Covid-19 social benefits was less than in 2020. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in volume terms amounted to €6.1 billion in the first half of 2021, an increase of almost six% over the first six months of 2020."

The GDP was hit at its worst during the second quarter of 2020 when it registered a drop of 15% over the corresponding period of 2019.

"In the second quarter of 2021, the inflation rate as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI) was 1.20%, up from the 0.74% in the corresponding period of 2020."

"Inflation has been on a downward trend since the third quarter of 2019, with the final quarter of 2020 registering the lowest inflation rate in years. Inflation picked up during the first quarter of 2021 and exhibited a sharp increase during the second quarter. The Index of Services Turnover stood at 114.02 in the second quarter of 2021, an improvement of 18.76 points from the same period last year" The index was at its lowest in the second quarter of last year, ensuing with an upward trend in the following quarters. The index registered a decline of 5.5 index points in the second quarter of 2021 when compared with the previous quarter.

Transport

The unprecedented decreases in inbound tourism, accompanied by changes in lifestyle and consumer behaviour, impacted transport patterns, the NSO said.

"In the first half of 2021 the number of newly licensed motor vehicles put on the road increased, reaching 10,808 from 8,947 last year. This was 21% higher than the same period in 2020, but still reflects a decline of almost 23% when compared to the first half of 2019. This same pattern could be observed in road traffic accidents which were lowest in the first half of 2020 but increasing by 15% in the first six months of 2021. Road traffic accidents in the first two quarters of 2021 were still lower than the amount recorded in the same period in 2019"

During the period under review, sea transport data showed that the number of passengers and vehicles travelling between the Malta and Gozo totalled 1,660,586 and 746,385, respectively. This meant an increase of three and 17 per cent respectively when compared to 2020. Once again it can be noted that the largest disruption occurred during the second quarter of 2020. When compared with 2019, a substantial decline was still evident in the first half of 2021 in passengers at 39% less whereas the difference in vehicles was recorded at 9%.

Labour Market

Data from the Labour Force Survey showed that the share of employed males in the first half of 2021 stood at 68.2%, relatively at the same level recorded in 2020 but registering a marginal increase of 0.2 percentage points when compared to 2019, the NSO said.

"Concurrently, both the share of unemployed males and those inactive remained at the same levels recorded in the first half of 2020. When compared to the same period in 2019, unemployed males went up by 0.4 percentage points whereas those inactive declined by 0.6 percentage points. The rate of employed females surpassed 51% in the first half of 2021, an increase of 0.5 percentage points when compared to 2020 and two percentage points when compared to 2019. Conversely, the share of unemployed females went down by 0.4 and 0.2 percentage points when compared to 2020 and 2019 respectively."

In addition, those inactive declined marginally when compared to 2020 but recorded a fall of 1.8 percentage points when compared to 2019, it said.

"Delving into the average actual hours worked, on average, employed persons worked 34.3 hours per week during the period under review, a slight increase from 2020 but still falling short from the 2019 level recorded at 37.4 hours. The increase was mainly recorded in the second quarter of 2021 with an average of 34.9 hours. Broken down by sex, in the first six months of 2021, the average working hours for males stood at 35.6, close to the level recorded in 2020 and amounting to four hours less when compared to the same period of 2019. Furthermore, average working hours for males in full- and part-time employment were 37 and 15.9 hours respectively."

"On the other hand, the average working hours for employed females in January-June 2021 stood at 32.4 hours, an increase of 2.2 hours over 2020 and a decline of 1.7 hours over 2019. Similar to the situation among males, females also experienced a significant reduction in their working hours from 2019, with those employed in full-time jobs working 2.6 hours less and those in part-time operated for over one hour less. Compared with 2020, the female working hours for both full-time and part-time employment increased. Non-fatal accidents at work for persons aged 15 to 64 years exhibited an increase, with the fi rst six months of this year registering 1,118 accidents. This meant 15 accident cases more over the previous year but 456 accidents less than during the corresponding period of 2019."