Malta was the European country to devote the largest share of its total expenditure on ‘furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance in 2016, recent research by Eurostat has revealed.

According to the EU’s official statistical data body, figures published last week in a feature titled ‘How much do households spend furnishing and equipping their dwellings?‘ show that Maltese citizens spent 7 per cent of their total expenditure on the upkeep of their homes, followed by Germany (6.8 per cent) and Austria (6.6 per cent).

Translated into monetary figures, Maltese spent €395.6 million on such activities in 2016, €4 million more than 2015.

The percentage has gone down in the past ten years, as it stood at 7.8 per cent in 2006, where it still held the highest position in the ranking. It is interesting to note that although the percentage was higher in 2006, the total expenditure stood at €297.4, almost one hundred million less than 2016.

At the opposite end of the scale, by far the lowest proportion was recorded in Greece (2.8 per cent), ahead of Latvia (4.0 per cent), Spain (4.2 per cent), Ireland and Cyprus (both 4.3 per cent), the reports showed.