A 7% drop in industrial production in August was the steepest in Europe, the Nationalist Party said today.
In a statement, it said that while Labour had promised to make Malta the 'best in Europe' the Eurostat figures showed the drop in industrial production as the worst in Europe.
The drop in Malta was even worse than in Greece, which, despite its economic difficulties, saw production drop by 6%, PN spokesmen Mario de Marco, Tonio Fenech and Kristy Debono said.
The situation in Malta was not the result of some new international crisis and the Maltese governemnt therefore needed to identify and tackle what was going wrong before jobs were lost. The government should use the forthcoming Budget to introduce new measures and initiatives to boost industry and turn challenges into opportunities for growth, the party added.
In its statement, Eurostat said that in August 2014 compared with July 2014, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 1.8% in the euro area and by
1.4% in the EU28.