Monaco’s GDP reached a record €10.6 billion in 2025, yet real growth slowed to just 1.7%, down from 8.8% a year earlier, as the completion of major construction projects weighed on business turnover and jobs, according to IMSEE’s annual report published on Wednesday 11th November.

The figure marks a fifth consecutive year of growth for the Principality, with GDP increasing by €294.2 million, or 2.9% in current euros. Once inflation is taken into account, however, growth was just 1.7%, a sharp slowdown from the year Monaco’s GDP surpassed €10 billion for the first time.

The end of the building boom

IMSEE links the more modest result to the end of several large building projects in Monaco, which also pulled total business turnover down by 7.6% and private sector employment by 1.3% over the year. Foreign trade fell 4.8% in value, following a contraction in trade with the European Union.

The slowdown had already shown up in the Principality’s revenue figures, as reported by Monaco Life in March, when construction turnover fell by more than a third. The GDP report now shows the knock-on effect. Wealth created by the construction sector dropped by 26.5%, mainly among residential and non-residential builders, while administrative and support services shrank by 7.1% as demand for temporary workers, which had surged during the building activity of 2024, fell away.

Property surges on one developer’s results

Real estate was the standout performer. After growing by 26.8% in 2024, the sector’s GDP jumped by a further 41.2% in 2025 to €1.2 billion, making it the third-largest contributor to the economy at 11.3%. IMSEE notes that this growth was driven mainly by the results of a single property development company.

Financial and insurance activities remain the largest sector, generating €1.8 billion, or 17.4% of GDP. Their growth came from higher salaries, particularly in banking, while the sector’s gross operating surplus declined. Specialised, scientific and technical activities, which include legal services and company headquarters, held steady at €1.6 billion for a third year running, representing 15.4% of GDP. Strong gains in legal activities and head-office payrolls were offset by taxes falling by almost half after reaching very high levels in 2023 and 2024.

Hospitality grew by 9.0%, supported by restaurant results and higher pay in hotels, and now accounts for 8.6% of GDP, up from 6.1% a decade ago. Health, education and public administration rose by 11.3%. Together, the four largest sectors produce more than half of all wealth created in Monaco, at 52.7%.

Not every sector advanced. Arts, sport and recreation contracted by 17.2%, partly because of weaker results at three sports organisations, while other service activities fell by 13.6%, partly due to one business whose activity was tied to the Summer Olympics. In all, eight of Monaco’s 14 main sectors grew, two were stable and four declined.

IMSEE has recalculated all sector figures under a new French classification of business activities that came into force on 1st January 2026, meaning the sector results cannot be compared with those published in previous reports.

Wages rise as the workforce shrinks

Under the income-based method Monaco uses to calculate GDP, company operating surplus remains the largest component, exceeding €5 billion after rising 4.6% in current euros, or 46.4% of GDP before subsidies. Employee pay grew by 3.1% to more than €4.5 billion, even though the number of public and private sector employees fell by 0.9%.

Taxes on production dropped by 4.1% to €1.4 billion, which IMSEE attributes largely to the fall in turnover reducing VAT receipts. Government subsidies rose by 2.1% to €513.3 million, more than double their 2016 level.

Monaco’s GDP per employee pulls further ahead of France

With fewer employees sharing a larger economy, GDP per employee rose by 2.6% after inflation to €162,739. In France, the same indicator grew by just 1.0%, leaving Monaco €46,000 ahead, a gap that has almost doubled in ten years. IMSEE cautions that the comparison tracks how the indicator has evolved in each country rather than measuring a difference in productivity, as Monaco’s GDP also includes wealth generated by business owners and the self-employed, not only salaried staff.

GDP per capita reached €110,669, up 1.9% in real terms. Because most of Monaco’s workforce commutes from outside the Principality, IMSEE uses an adjusted reference population of 95,755 to calculate GDP per capita, rather than relying solely on its 38,857 residents. Of Monaco’s 65,117 active employees, 87.4% live outside the country, a situation the statistics office describes as almost unique in the world and one that makes international comparisons difficult.

A decade of outperformance

Over the longer term, Monaco’s economy continues to outpace its neighbours. GDP has grown by 51.3% in real terms since 2016, an average of 4.7% a year, and by around 60% since the pandemic. Over the same decade, growth reached 27.8% worldwide, 13.2% in the eurozone and 11.4% in France.

Even in a slower year, Monaco remained ahead of most of Europe. According to World Bank data cited in the report, eurozone growth was limited to 1.4% in 2025, with France at 0.8%, Italy at 0.5% and Germany at just 0.2%.

Photo credit: Benjamin Vergely