The Minister of Finance yesterday expressed misplaced jubilation at the improved trade balance, a Nationalist Party press release issued this evening said.
The Opposition called on the Prime Minister to take the next step and start fixing issues that are impacting negatively on Malta’s competitiveness.
It also called on the government to reduce the price of petrol and diesel, which are now above the European Union average and do not reflect the drastic drop in the international price of oil.
The Minister failed to report in his statement that imports between January and November of 2015 decreased by €360 million when compared to the same period of the previous year, it continued.
Total exports also went down by €226 million. Exports net of fuel on the other hand were marginally up by €16 million which is hardly a feat when one considers the drops in corresponding periods of the previous years 2013 and 2014.
The drop in exports came as a result of several industrial sectors exporting less. Malta exported less tobacco items, less crude materials, less chemicals and less machinery and transport equipment. During the same period Malta imported less food items, less beverages and tobacco items and fewer chemicals. The drop in imports could have been higher were it not for the importation of equipment for the new power station.
This data proves yet again that certain sectors of the economy are suffering. Industrial production and retail are alternating between sluggish growth and decline. Data on industrial production extracted from the Eurostat database shows that Malta had one of the lowest annual growth rates in November when compared to the other member states. Of the 18 countries that submitted information, Malta ranked in at the 13th place. Industrial production for November rose marginally year on year by 0.8% even when November 2013 and November 2014 declined by 8.4% and 1.7% respectively. This is the lowest growth rate recorded since December 2014. It is therefore no wonder that the average wage in these sectors is not improving.