Malta’s National Statistics Office has released its full-year foreign direct investment figures for 2025, showing that the island’s net inward FDI stock position reached €493.1 billion by the end of December, up €13.4 billion on the year before. Maltese direct investment abroad climbed to €463.9 billion over the same period, an increase of €11.0 billion on 2024.
The data, published on 7 October 2026, covers the twelve months to December 2025 and confirms that financial and insurance activities continue to dominate both positions by an overwhelming margin. Inward FDI from that sector accounted for 98.3 per cent of the total stock, while financial and insurance activities made up 99.5 per cent of the outward position. Those figures reflect the outsized role that special purpose entities and financial services firms play in Malta’s investment landscape, a structural feature the NSO flags explicitly in its methodology.
On a flow basis, net inward FDI during 2025 came to €10.7 billion, a marked increase on the €4.1 billion recorded in 2024. Outward direct investment flows reached €12.9 billion for the year, up from €4.7 billion the year prior, with equity and investment fund shares and units accounting for the dominant portion of that movement.
The geographic breakdown adds further texture. EU-sourced inward FDI stood at €362.4 billion at end-2025, a modest rise from €361.0 billion at the close of 2024, while extra-EU positions grew more sharply, from €118.6 billion to €130.6 billion. That non-EU expansion narrowed the gap between the two blocs relative to prior years, though EU partners remain the primary source of inbound capital by a considerable distance.
On the outward side, Maltese investment directed towards EU partners reached €290.4 billion, up from €284.2 billion a year earlier. Extra-EU outward positions rose to €173.5 billion from €168.6 billion, with financial and insurance activities again accounting for nearly the entirety of both figures.
The scale of these numbers warrants a brief note. Malta’s FDI totals, both inward and outward, are exceptionally large relative to the size of the domestic economy. The NSO acknowledges that the data incorporates special purpose entities classified under financial service activities, a category that significantly inflates the headline stock figures and reflects cross-border financial structuring rather than physical investment in Malta alone.
The NSO compiles the figures in conjunction with the Central Bank of Malta and follows the International Monetary Fund’s sixth Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual. The primary data source is the Tax Index of Financial Data, supplemented by survey returns from across the Maltese economy. All figures are described as provisional.
