Malta was one of only three EU countries that posted a drop in retail trade in December, down 1.4 per cent, Eurostat figures show.
On average, the EU reported a 3.2 per cent increase in retail sales in December 2014 compared with the same month a year earlier.
This was due to a four per cent rise in the non-food sector, two per cent in automotive fuel and of 1.8 per cent in the case of food, drinks and tobacco.
Meanwhile, the euro area posted a 2.8 per cent increase in the volume of retail trade, attributed to rises of 3.5 per cent for the non-food sector, 2.3 per cent for automotive fuel and of 1.6 per cent for food, drinks and tobacco.
The highest increases in total retail trade were observed in Luxembourg (9.2 per cent), Spain (6.6 per cent) and Bulgaria (6.4 per cent) while decreases were observed in Finland (-2.6 per cent), Slovenia (-2.5 per cent) and Malta (-1.4 per cent).
Malta only saw a 0.1 per cent increase in the volume of retail trade in December when compared with November. The EU average stood at 0.3 per cent, which was due to rises of 0.7 per cent for automotive fuel, 0.4 per cent for food, drinks and tobacco and 0.2 per cent for the non-food sector.
When considering the last half of 2014, Malta suffered the worst drop in October, with retail trade plummeting by 6.9 per cent when compared to October 2013.
Shadow finance minister Mario de Marco and SMEs spokesman Robert Arrigo said the figures confirmed that retail sales in Malta were continuing to shrink rather than grow. This was worrying for the self-employed and raised concern on consumers’ spending power.
“Even more worryingly, if one had to exclude fuel and motor vehicles from the calculations, the drop in retail sales in volume would be even higher, reaching 6.5 per cent. This puts Malta at the wrong end of the European Union league table in as far as retail sales is concerned,” they said.
It was unfortunate, they added, that the government was refusing to even acknowledge that a problem existed.
The Opposition reiterated its call for a serious debate on the economy and on public finances. It also called on the government to come up with concrete plans and actions to help those sectors of the economy that were seeing their competitive edge being eroded.
The government should, with immediate effect, lower the price of petrol and diesel – which are the fourth most expensive in Europe – to bring them in line with the EU average, Dr de Marco and Mr Arrigo said.