The first of a number of exercises that will be carried out by the Union Haddiema Maghqudin with regard to the effects the changeover from the lira to the euro will have on the price structure have basically confirmed the perceptions.

The report, published earlier this week and covering up to the end of August, shows that so far there have been no price increases that could be directly attributed to the euro changeover, but there have been price fluctuations that have occurred because of other reasons, namely the prevailing circumstances in the international market.

The FAIR trading initiative that was introduced by the National Euro Changeover Committee seems to have worked wonders in this regard. Businessmen realised that they would have been losers if they did not comply with the system, as consumers quickly realised that shops which portray the FAIR stickers were to be trusted more than those that did not.

This system has helped in no small way to enable the people to get used to thinking in euros, so that when the change actually takes place on 1 January – less than 100 days from now – they will already have come to grips with the new currency. The dual pricing idea, which started in July, has also been beneficial in this regard.

Such initiatives were taken in hand to remove fears that a changeover to the euro will bring with it a hefty increase in the price of commodities. With cost of living matters always having a big role in our political scenario, the government anticipated the problem and, through NECC, dealt with the matter before it could go out of hand.

Although the Malta Labour Party – which is always in the forefront on cost of living issues – has said it will follow the government’s intentions to join the eurozone, it will nonetheless take every political advantage if the switchover to the euro will lead to price increases, particularly if the election would not have been held by then.

As such, recently the MLP has started to mention the issue quite often, which means that it will form part of its campaign to be re-elected. What the MLP is not saying is that the price hikes that we have experienced over the past weeks – the most notable of which is the price of the Maltese hobza – is not linked with the switchover to the euro, but to what is happening in the international market.

And this is what the UHM report confirmed – that the price hikes in a number of commodities were not related to Malta’s impending euro changeover, but came to be as a result of developments in the international market with regard to products using wheat, cereals and milk.

The union’s exercise is based on information supplied by 40 mystery shoppers representing a socio-economic cross-section of Maltese society who were appointed by the UHM to monitor prices. Some 200 price-sensitive items from 140 establishments were included in the exercise, which will continue until May, that is five months after the changeover to the euro.

The price fluctuations that were registered include items such as pasta, biscuits and tuna but the trend is not a result of abuse in the local market but rather of imported inflation due to what is taking place internationally.

No doubt, the exercise that the UHM has been commissioned to carry out will help the Maltese people understand better the workings of the currency switchover, and at the same time put everyone’s mind at rest that there is a mechanism in place that will monitor against abuses.