The Maltese seems to be becoming more health conscious with household’s expenditure on health rising from three per cent in 2000-2001 to 6.4 per cent 2008-2009.

This is one of the conclusion in the Household Budgetary Survey for 2008, published by the National Statistics Office and presented to the media this morning.

The survey tracks the expenditure of households between February 2008 and February 2009.

According to the survey’s result, the Maltese spent almost a quarter (22.4 per cent) of household expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages. This was followed by transport (13.8 per cent) and miscellaneous goods and services (9.2 per cent). Only 1.7 per cent household expenditure went for education.

Most of the money spent on food (21 per cent) was used to buy meat, followed by bread and cereals (18.4 per cent) and milk, cheese and eggs (14 per cent).

Only five per cent of the food budget was used to buy fish – a main staple of the Mediterranean diet. Vegetables got 11.1 per cent of the expenditure and fruit (7.2 per cent).

The results also show that 83.2 per cent of households owned a car or made regular use of a vehicle and 56.8 had access to a garage.

The television was the most popular commodity with 98.7 per cent of respondents saying they owned one. This was followed by washing machine (96.7 per cent) and water heater (93.7 per cent). 65.2 per cent of households owned a computer and 55.8 per cent owned an air conditioner.

The HBS is used as the basis for the retail price index.