Trade figures a 'cause for serious concern' - MLP

Foreign trade figures issued this week by the NSO should be a serious cause for concern, the opposition spokesman on the economy, Gavin Gulia, said today.

He said it was worrying that in August alone, Malta’s exports declined by €25.2 million over the same month in 2007. There was another decline of €31.1 million in July.

The decline since January was of €138.9 million, a drop of 10 percent,

The import figures were also worrying, with a decline of €16.9 million in August, including a drop of 6% in the importation of consumables and a consistent decline in the importation of industrial supplies.

“This figures show that the economy is not as resilient as the government is making it out to be.

“While it is true that growth is slowing down across the world, there do not appear to be other EU countries showing such a steep drop in their exports,” Dr Gulia said.

Domestic consumption was also sluggish, but, worst of all, the drop in the importation of industrial supplies was not a good augury for the manufacturing sector.

The fact that the trade gap had continued to widen showed that the Maltese economy was losing competitiveness. This underlined the fact that this was not a good time to revise the utility tariffs upwards, Dr Gulia said.

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