The social partners who sit on the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development seem to be satisfied over what the government has done to identify sources of external inflation, cushion them, and forecast what will be happening in the future.

The reactions were pretty much similar from all those concerned, the Malta Employers Association, the General Workers Union, the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, the Malta Federation of Industry, the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions and the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises after an MCESD meeting at the Excelsior Hotel yesterday.

GWU secretary general Tony Zarb said: “The presentations by the government were all on the issue of keeping inflation down. This union put forward a suggestion to extend the dual pricing period in an attempt to prevent an increase. We also proposed a revision of the weightings used in the Retail Price Index. The oil hedging issue has been positive, but we still see the price of some medicines to be problematic.”

UHM secretary general Gejtu Vella said: “We must always bear in mind the difference between real and perceived inflation. We will continue to monitor prices in the context of the global increase in oil and cereal prices versus the theory that prices should not increase in view of euro adoption.”

Joe Farrugia from the MEA said: “It was a positive meeting which contained a very detailed analysis of what is going on in the country and what to expect next year when we adopt the euro.”

He said that euro adoption should not cause inflation, but the rising prices of oil and cereals could have an inflationary effect. Mr Farrugia said: “The main challenge is protecting the public from the effects of inflation while at the same time not dampening our competitiveness.”

Vince Farrugia from the GRTU said: “Prices are a symptom of inflation, we need to find the root of the problem. It is also clear that the Maltese worker has become a lot more productive and the bottom line is that prices outside Malta are causing inflationary effects.”

MCESD chairman Sonny Portelli said the oil and cereal prices were having an impact on the Maltese, but the country as a whole was doing the best it could to cushion the blow.

“The reality is that oil prices are always on the increase. But it is important that those increases are justified. I must also add that Enemalta’s hedging agreements are paying dividends,” he said. The CMTU and FOI held very similar views, but the former added that the Maltese consumer lobby needed to be strengthened.

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