Malta has moved into 11th position in financial market development according to the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Index 2010 2011. Key performance indicators for the financial services sector also confirm the sector’s standing as a leading innovator in the Maltese economy. This ranking is two notches up from the previous year.

The soundness of Maltese banks has been ranked in 10 th position (up from 13th). This also means that Malta has effectively retained its joint 5th position in this area if it is considered that there are eight countries tying in the top 10 segment. Malta also moved up from 13th to 12th position (joint 6th) in the assessment carried out on the regulation of securities exchanges and from 12th to 8th position on the strength of auditing and reporting standards.

This year’s edition of the WEF Index is based on an assessment of 139 countries. According to the same Report, the Maltese economy has also moved into 50th position worldwide, up from 52nd last year. Malta also featured strongly on the positive impact of rules on foreign direct investment (7th); the quality of the educational system (20th) and country credit rating (28th). The rankings also confirm that the country is a very safe place to do business in.

The figures for financial services underscore recent performance figures published by the National Statistics Office showing that the financial sector’s gross value added in the first 6 months of 2010 has increased by 75% over the same period last year.

The Report may be found on the WEF website:
http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm