What retailers say is often a good measurement of the feel-good factor – or otherwise – of the country. Their surveys always provoke an interesting discussion as they give a clear indication as to how the economy is doing.

Being rather conservative, and perhaps to avoid the taxman breathing down their neck, retailers always tend to play down things. When they are positive, they say that things could be better and, when they are negative, they are downright pessimistic.

If something is 100 per cent correct, they will insist it is only 90 per cent right in the hope that things will continue to improve. Generally speaking, it is always hard to find a retailer who does not complain about this, that and the other, even when things are going well. For them, there is always something that could have been better.

Just to give an example, if business in Paceville was good during last Christmas, it will not be a surprise to find establishment owners who say that it would have been better if the two sides of the Manwel Dimech bridge had been open to traffic. That is how retailers think.

Retailers complain so much that even GRTU director general Vince Farrugia expressed surprise that they had reported a smooth transition from the lira to the euro. And to hear them say that they were satisfied with the Christmas shopping is something that further confirms that the country has embarked on a smooth path and that the economy is doing well.

It was known that the measures that were taken by the government in the last two budgets would have left more money in the people’s pockets. The reform of the income tax as well as that of the children’s allowance system, apart from the yearly increases to make up for the cost of living, has given the people more spending power, and this has been reflected in the money they spent, according to what the retailers are saying.

Only 15 per cent of the retailers replied that they had a “bad Christmas”. Thirty-five per cent of retailers said their sales had been better than expected while 37 per cent agreed that more or less they had experienced the same trade as the year before. The majority, therefore, did well.

It would be interesting to have another survey conducted just after Christmas, during the January sales, and see what the retailers report. Judging by the queues that we all saw outside shops in all of the commercial centres, in particular in Sliema and Valletta, retailers must have had a good time in those days too.

Some of them might have even made up for the poor times they said they experienced before the Christmas festivities. Others continued on the same good trend they had all through December.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that today people do not wait for Christmas to buy new clothes or items that they need. The same thing goes for the summer trade fair. For many years, people used to wait for the trade fair or for the Christmas season to shop for objects they required.

Today, this is no longer so, because people shop all throughout the year. The fact that sales increase during the Christmas season is an added bonus for the retailers; and if most of them say that they did better than expected then this goes to prove that people have more money to spend and they are spending it.

And if, for argument’s sake, retailers reported a “bad Christmas”, and considering the way shopping has developed recently, they could have amply made up for it with their sales throughout the rest of the year.