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Italy at the centre of trade with 20.6% of imports
Malta started 2026 with a smaller trade deficit, and for Italian readers one fact stands out immediately: Italy remains at the very centre of the island’s trade network.
In February 2026, Malta recorded a trade in goods deficit of €209.4 million, improving on the €225.0 million registered in February 2025. Imports fell to €534.3 million, while exports declined to €324.8 million. The overall picture is therefore one of softer trade flows, but also of a narrower gap between what Malta buys from abroad and what it sells overseas.
Within this broader slowdown, trade with Italy tells a more dynamic story. According to the figures in the attached Excel tables, Malta imported €104.0 million worth of goods from Italy in February 2026, up from €99.1 million in the same month of 2025. Even more strikingly, Maltese exports to Italy rose to €19.5 million, compared to €12.3 million a year earlier. This means that, while Malta’s total trade contracted, business with Italy actually strengthened during the month.
The picture over the first two months of the year is more nuanced, but still highly significant. Between January and February 2026, Malta imported €222.2 million from Italy, down from €279.3 million in the same period of 2025. That decline helps explain why Italy was the country registering the sharpest drop in imports in Malta’s overall statistics. Yet the bigger message is that Italy still remained Malta’s largest source of imported goods by a wide margin, accounting for about 20.6% of total imports.
On the export side, the trend was more positive. Malta’s exports to Italy increased to €34.8 million in January-February 2026, up from €26.9 million in the same period of 2025. This made Italy Malta’s second most important export destination in the opening two months of the year, behind only Germany.
The result is that Malta continues to run a trade deficit with Italy, but the gap is narrowing. In February alone, the deficit with Italy improved from €86.7 million to €84.5 million. Over the January-February period, it narrowed far more sharply, from €252.4 million to €187.5 million.
For Italian businesses, exporters and observers of the Maltese market, the message is clear: even in a period of weaker overall trade, Italy remains Malta’s key commercial partner. The volumes are still strong, the relationship remains deeply rooted, and the latest export figures suggest that commercial links between the two countries are not only resilient, but also evolving in a more balanced direction.
