Malta: Food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing)

Key figures

Over five years it is down 0.89 percentage points from 15.8% in 2018. Since 1963 it is down 29.53 percentage points from 44.43% in 1963. The World Bank has no value for 6 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2023, Malta's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) rose 1.21 percentage points on 2022 (from 13.69% to 14.9%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1986 to 2022), the average change was +0.11 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.78 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.3 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 11.38 percentage points in 2017 and the biggest yearly fall was 11.47 percentage points in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2023 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 1% of the movement over 8 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2023, Malta had the 40th highest value of the 64 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Malta in the 2023 ranking

• Bulgaria — 36th of 64: 16.5%
• Latvia — 37th of 64: 16.39%
• Lithuania — 38th of 64: 16.35%
• Uzbekistan — 40th of 64: 14.37%
• Estonia — 41st of 64: 13.5%
• Russian Federation — 42nd of 64: 13.1%

What this measures

Manufacturing of food, beverages, and tobacco includes industries classified in ISIC (Rev. 3) divisions 15 and 16. Value added is the contribution to the economy by a producer or an industry or an institutional sector, which is estimated by the total value of output produced and deducting the total value of intermediate consumption of goods and services used to produce that output. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of value added in manufacturing which is the contribution to the economy by the manufacturing sector (ISIC Rev. 3 major division D).

Limitations: In establishing classifications systems compilers must define both the types of activities to be described and the units whose activities are to be reported. There are many possibilities, and the choices affect how the statistics can be interpreted and how useful they are in analyzing economic behavior. The ISIC emphasizes commonalities in the production process and is explicitly not intended to measure outputs (for which there is a newly developed Central Product Classification). Nevertheless, the ISIC views an activity as defined by "a process resulting in a homogeneous set of products."

All 55 values

Food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) in nearby economies

• Algeria — 10.62% (2017)
• Bahrain — 1.23% (2018)
• Djibouti — 77.99% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 27.84% (2022)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 11.47% (2022)
• Iraq — 33.61% (2022)
• Israel — 12.95% (2021)
• Jordan — 23.51% (2022)
• Kuwait — 7.7% (2021)

More economic policy & debt data for Malta

• Total reserves, including gold (current US$) — US$1.54 billion (2025)
• Total reserves, excluding gold (current US$) — US$1.49 billion (2025)
• Other manufacturing (% of value added in manufacturing) — 46.54% (2023)
• Textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing) — 1.23% (2023)
• Chemicals (% of value added in manufacturing) — 6.47% (2023)
• Machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing) — 30.86% (2023)
• Foreign direct investment, net inflows (BoP, current US$) — US$14.36 billion (2025)
• Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP) — 51.71% (2025)
• General government final consumption expenditure (current US$)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Malta's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing)?

14.9% in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1963?

It is down 29.53 percentage points from 44.43% in 1963. The highest value was 44.43% in 1963 and the lowest 4.23% in 2020.

How does Malta rank?

40th highest of 64 economies with data for 2023.

Is the latest change in food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) unusual for Malta?

In 2023, Malta's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) rose 1.21 percentage points on 2022 (from 13.69% to 14.9%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1986 to 2022), the average change was +0.11 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.78 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.3 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NV.MNF.FBTO.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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