The way the government expressed satisfaction about wage indicators as reported by Eurostat is testimony to the fact that the government has low standards for Maltese lifestyle, the Nationalist Party said.
This is because the government is happy Malta is better than others – when in fact others moved backwards, the PN said.
While the PN admitted that the rate of wage increase is higher than the European average, and this could be seen as positive, a serious analysis of the statistics published show a different reality. The European average has taken a dip because of weak performances by Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and Greece.
If one were to compare Malta with other countries at a different level of development – such as advanced nations like Austria, Luxembourg and Sweden, and others in line with Malta including Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Hunhary, Lithuania and Poland – one finds out that these have registered growth that varies from double to treble the one registered by Malta
The wage increases in Malta have started to be eaten away by rising inflation, and this is worrying for families who have been given just 58c a week more than they used to get, while the price of fuel is still substantially higher than it should be.
In its statement, the government said that the average wage in Malta had gone up by 2.1% when inflation had been just 0.4%.
The government said that the European average was 1.4%, and Malta’s rise was the fifth highest in Europe.