Fewer people in Malta are in a situation where they can’t make ends meet, according to figures released Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency.
The figures show that, in 2016, only 6.6 per cent of the households were finding great difficulty to make ends meet.
According to the data provided, the rate of people who found it difficult to make ends meet in 2007 was 11.9%. By the following year the rate had risen to 13.3%. The rate climbed further to 18.9% in 2009, and to 19.7% in 2010.The latter was the highest rate recorded in the period under review.
The rate in 2011 was 14.9% and in 2012 it was 17%. In 2013 it fell to 15.1%, reaching 12% the following year and dropping to 7.2% in 2015.
These statistics are linked to the drop in unemployment which, decreased from 6.3% in 2012 to 4.7% in 2016.
One of the questions of a recent European Commission survey titled Life in the European Union was; “How would you judge the current situation of Malta’s economy?” 86% of Maltese respondents said they felt that their economy was in a ‘good’ place, while only 8% said the economy was bad.
This contrasts highly to the EU level, where a staggering 51% believed that their economy was not in a healthy state.
Furthermore, when asked about ‘the financial situation of your household’, the Maltese sample showed that 87% felt their financial situation at home was ‘good’, whilst with other Europeans, it was somewhat lower, with 70% saying they felt it was ‘good’.