Malta tripled the size of its economy over 12 years.
Malta's nominal GDP went from roughly €8.0bn in 2013 to ~€23.1bn in 2024 — a 2.9x increase, just shy of literal tripling. Strong claim, defensibly rounded.
Malta's nominal GDP went from roughly €8.0bn in 2013 to ~€23.1bn in 2024 — a 2.9x increase, just shy of literal tripling. Strong claim, defensibly rounded.
Nominal GDP went from roughly €8.0 billion in 2013 to approximately €23.1 billion in 2024 — a 2.9x increase over the 11-12 year window. 'Tripled' is a slight rhetorical rounding (2.9x ≠ 3.0x), but it is well within rounding tolerance for political speech and is the same arithmetic our companion fact-check on the original PL '€8bn → €23bn' claim used to land Mostly True with high confidence. Mostly True.
Did Malta really triple the size of its economy over 12 years
Abela's tripling claim is one of his cleanest data lines. The arithmetic almost works — and 'almost' is what makes this Mostly True rather than True.
The numbers
Malta's nominal GDP, per NSO national accounts and the Ministry for Finance Budget 2026 economic update:
From €8.0 billion in 2013 to roughly €23.1 billion in 2024 is a 2.9x increase. 'Tripled' would be 3.0x — close, but not literally there. The 12-year window in Abela's claim is a slight stretch; the cleanest comparison is 11 years (2013 → 2024).
Caveats
Nominal GDP includes inflation. Real GDP growth — the inflation-adjusted measure — over the same period is closer to a 2x increase. 'Tripled' works for nominal but not real. Population growth (Malta's resident population went from ~428k to ~574k over the same window) explains some of the headline gain in absolute terms; per-capita growth is more modest but still strong.
So is the claim accurate?
On the headline metric Abela is most likely referencing (nominal GDP), 2.9x rounds defensibly to 'tripled'. On strict real terms, it doesn't. Mostly True.
Verdict: Mostly True.