Joining the euro will help, said Michael Bonello, the governor of Malta's central bank, but this is not enough to secure faster economic growth.

The country needs to set limits on how much we consume and allocate a greater proportion of the national income to investment, Bonello said at the annual dinner of the Malta Institute of Financial Services.

Unless steps are taken to realise these, the "advantages of euro area membership cannot be fully realised," he said.

Read the speech in full