Malta's annual inflation rate climbed to 2.4 per cent in September 2026, up from 2.0 per cent in August, according to the National Statistics Office. The 12-month moving average held at 2.3 per cent.

Restaurants and accommodation services pushed hardest on the headline figure, adding 0.52 percentage points, mainly through higher prices for restaurant services. Food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 0.43 percentage points, driven by dearer vegetables, and transport added 0.35 percentage points, chiefly on higher air fares.

Only one division pulled in the other direction. Information and communication subtracted 0.18 percentage points, mainly reflecting lower prices of mobile phone services.

The steepest annual price rises came in recreation, sport and culture and in personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services, both at 3.6 per cent. At the other end, information and communication prices dropped 3.7 per cent over the year, while insurance and financial services rose by just 0.8 per cent.

Malta's rate sat well below the euro area as a whole, where the All-items HICP registered an annual increase of 3.8 per cent in September, 1.4 percentage points above the Maltese figure. The euro area number is a provisional flash estimate.

The HICP tracks price movements across a representative basket of consumer goods and services, drawing on around 50,000 separate price quotations each month across some 550 goods and services. The European Central Bank has used it as its measure of price stability across the euro area since January 1999.