Maths and geography are not the Opposition’s strength the Prime Minister said in a dig at criticism over fuel prices and a phantom visit to North Korea.

Joseph Muscat accused the Opposition of being short-sighted in its criticism on fuel prices when it based its calculations on weekly fluctuations. He was speaking on One Radio, the party station, during a brief phone call this morning.

The Nationalist Party called on the government to lower the price of petrol and diesel as crude oil plunged to $40 per barrel last week. The price climbed up to $45 by the end of the week.

However, the PN statement did not refer to the Brent crude oil price which is used as a benchmark in Europe but used instead the crude oil WTI index, which is used as a benchmark in the Americas.

The PN said motorists in Malta were paying among the highest prices for fuel across Europe despite a drop in crude oil prices.

But Dr Muscat was unapologetic for his government’s policy to go for price stability in petrol and diesel as opposed to the previous administration’s policy to changes fuel prices every month.

He said the price of fuel had consistently been reduced since 2013 for the long haul.

“At the beginning of last year the Opposition had criticised us because the price of crude oil had dropped but the criticism stopped when a couple of months later crude oil started going up again.”

But this is to be expected from an Opposition that could not understand the difference between North Korea and South Korea, he added.

The reference was to “an exclusive” front page report in the PN’s Sunday newspaper il-Mument last week that said Transport Minister was on a visit to North Korea.

The report was mistaken since the visit was for a conference to be held in South Korea.

“The Opposition have a problem with maths and geography it seems,” Dr Muscat said.

He then expressed disbelief at the PN’s criticism of the residency-by-investment scheme announced last Friday.

“The government had discussed the scheme with [PN deputy leader] Mario de Marco and had also taken on board some suggestions but an hour after the launch the other PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami came out with guns blazing,” he said.

Dr Muscat saw this as a sign of the divisions within the PN between the pro-active faction that wanted to move forward and the faction that wanted to remain negative at all costs.