As inflation continues to soar, almost 30% of Maltese people have said they felt their financial situation has regressed over the past year.
A ‘State of the Nation’ survey conducted by leading statistician Vincent Marmara for the Office of the President found that 28.7% of Maltese people feel poorer now than they did last year.
This is a significant leap from Marmara’s 2021 survey, in which only 13.5% of respondents said they feel their financial situation has regressed.
Those older than 66 were the most likely age cohort to say their financial situation regressed (31.7%), followed by those aged 26-35 (31.6%).
Meanwhile, 26.8% of people said their financial situation has improved, slightly up from 24.2% last year, while the majority (44.5%) said they haven’t felt an upwards or downwards tick in their finances.
Other findings from Marmara’s survey show that 60.5% of people plan their lives out, a decline of 10.5 percentage points from last year, while conversely 39.5% said they live their lives day by day.
These new findings come as inflation across the Euro zone continues to soar, hitting a record high of 8.1% last month, largely as a result of food and energy costs.
This has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, with food trade hindered and European countries trying to reduce their reliance on Russian gas in an attempt to stop funding the war.
Meanwhile, a separate Labour Force Survey found that 140,723 employees in Malta earned less than the median wage in 2021.
On a more positive note, 77% of people said they feel pleased with life, an increase of 16.3 points from the 2021 survey. Asked whether they feel life will be better in a year’s time, 41.2% said it will, up from 30.4% last year, while 14.7% said it won’t, up from 7.1% last year.
Marmara linked both these findings to the removal of COVID-19 restrictions over the past year with a sense that life is returning to normal.
Asked whether they feel life will be better in a year from now, 41.2% said yes, up from 30.4% last year, while 14.7% said no, up from 7.1% last year. It was the ‘don’t knows’ which suffered – from 62.5% to 44.1%.
Source: lovinmalta.com
