A large majority of retailers – 69 per cent – say that the prospects for this year’s Christmas season are bad or uncertain, according to a survey conducted by the Chamber of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises – GRTU.

The survey, conducted among businesses involved in retailing and services, showed that 21 per cent of those interviewed consider their prospects over Christmas to be bad, 19 per cent said they were very bad while 29 per cent said they were uncertain. Five per cent said the prospects were very good while 24 per cent said they were good.

The most significant factor which influenced the businesses’ Christmas prospects were the utility tariffs, cited by 27 per cent of the respondents, followed by the financial crisis, mentioned by 25 per cent of those surveyed. Other factors highlighted were the lack of tourists (12 per cent), lack of client confidence due to an increase in expenses (12 per cent), positive business strategies (10 per cent), a decrease in purchasing power (seven per cent), liquidity problems (three per cent), a usual slow-down in certain sectors (two per cent) and the sale of necessary goods (two per cent).

Asked to describe the state of their business today, five per cent said very good, 24 per cent said good, 29 per cent said average, 26 per cent said bad and 16 per cent said very bad.

The relative majority of the respondents (21 per cent) mentioned the financial crisis as the factor which most influenced their business in the last six months. This was followed by positive business strategies (17 per cent), the utility tariffs (16 per cent), a lack of quality tourism (10 per cent), wrong fiscal measures and a lack of an infrastructure (10 per cent), increased competition (seven per cent), a lack of client confidence (seven per cent), an increase in fuel prices (four per cent), unfair competition (three per cent), an increase in business expenses (three per cent), liquidity problems (one per cent) and the introduction of the euro (one per cent).

Questioned about their prospects for the next six months, 29 per cent of respondents said they were uncertain, 21 per cent said they were negative, 36 per cent said they were stable and 14 per cent said they were positive.

Nineteen per cent of the respondents said they were considering reducing the number of their employees while 16 per cent said they were envisaging closing some of their shops or part of their shop. Five per cent said they would close their business and 10 per cent said they would open new shops or expand their business. Fifty per cent of those questioned said they would make no changes to their business.

Vince Farrugia, director general of the GRTU said: “It is obvious there is a lot of uncertainty this Christmas. The GRTU has worked hard to convince the government to produce a Budget for 2010 that raises hopes and sends a positive message, however it has not sufficed to raise consumer confidence in the pre-Christmas period and alas the very ill planned and ill timed electricity tariff increases are further dampening consumer expectations”.

Mr Farrugia added: “The GRTU strongly urges the government to take some serious professional advice on how to handle its public relations if it really wants consumer confidence to grow and business to thrive in a world economic scenario which is definitely not comfortable. The GRTU intends to keep pressing the government for a reassessment of its whole package of economic incentives to small business.”