Monaco’s economy eased back in the first half of 2026 from the exceptional highs of a year earlier, with business turnover and the property market both down, though the slowdown was offset by a record job market, according to the latest quarterly bulletin from the statistics institute IMSEE, published on 16th September. Private-sector employment neared 70,000 by the end of June, an all-time high, even as total turnover fell to €9.2 billion.
Business turnover across the Principality, excluding financial and insurance activities, fell 9.6% year on year to €9.2 billion in the first six months of 2026 — though IMSEE was quick to put the drop in context. Much of it, the institute said, is mechanical: 2025 was inflated by the completion of several large construction projects and by one-off operations that were not repeated this year. Strip those out and the underlying picture is healthier — eight of the 13 broad sectors IMSEE tracks grew.
Retail was among the strongest, up 11.1%, led by car sales, watches and jewellery, and clothing, while hospitality and catering passed €600 million for the first time at this point in the year, a rise of 13.9%. The heaviest falls were concentrated in a few areas: specialised, scientific and technical activities more than halved after two firms’ exceptional 2025 business dropped out of the figures, while construction fell almost 20% and the real-estate sector by a quarter.
A record job market
If turnover cooled, employment did the opposite. The private sector employed close to 70,000 people at the end of June, up 4.2% on the year — some 2,795 more jobs, and a record for a second quarter. Growth was spread across almost every sector, the exception being industry, where a fall reflected an internal transfer of staff rather than job losses. Hospitality and catering passed 11,000 employees for the first time, administrative and support services grew fastest at 9.4%, and the number of hours worked over the half-year rose 1.8%. The Principality counted 6,444 private employers.
Trade, tourism and banking
Foreign trade excluding France came to €1.8 billion, down 6.1%, but the trade deficit narrowed by 11.4% to below €700 million. One shift stood out: on the back of nearly €190 million in imports of electronic components, Taiwan leapt to become Monaco’s second-largest supplier after Italy, while exports of watches jumped 43.5%.
Tourism told a similar story of growth with a caveat: arrivals rose 4.2% to almost 170,000 and overnight stays 2.6%, but with more hotel rooms available, the occupancy rate slipped to 62.3%. More cruise ships called than a year earlier, though passenger numbers fell. In banking, assets under management climbed 11.5% over the year, while in property new-build sales all but dried up, with just four recorded, even as resales held steady at 238 transactions worth €1.2 billion.
IMSEE cautioned that the figures follow the introduction of a new activity classification, NAF 2025, in January, meaning the sector results cannot be compared with its earlier bulletins; the foreign-trade data is also provisional and subject to revision.
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Photo credit: Richard McCreery
