The strengths of the economy of Malta are its strategic location, being situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea at a crossroads between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, its fully developed open market economy, multilingual population (88% of Maltese people speak English), productive labour force, low corporate tax and well developed finance and ICT clusters. The economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing (especially electronics), tourism and financial services. In 2014, over 1.7 million tourists visited the island. Besides, Malta is fast becoming a sought-after Digital Gaming hub, attracting companies seeking to relocate their business or set up their operations in Malta. Malta offers attractive corporate and personal tax incentives and a good ICT infrastructure. Malta also offers the lowest effective tax rate in the EU through the operation of its general tax system which is applicable to any company operating in Malta, including Digital Gaming companies. Malta operates a full imputation tax system which completely eliminates the economic double taxation of company profits. While the corporate tax rate stands at 35%, upon a distribution of dividends, the shareholders are entitled to a refund of the Malta tax charged (generally 6/7ths), which reduces the effective tax to as low as 5%.
Malta's GDP per capita, adjusted by purchasing power parity, stands at $29,200 and ranks in 15th place in the list of EU countries in terms of purchasing power standard. In the 2013 calendar year, Malta recorded a budget deficit of 2.7%, which is within the limits for eurozone countries imposed by the Maastricht criteria, and Government gross debt of 69.8%. At 5.9%, Malta has the sixth lowest unemployment rate in the EU.