Malta's decline in GDP in the last quarter of 2009 would have reached 5.7% were in not for the fact that inventories tripled during those three months, Opposition economic affairs spokesman Gavin Gulia said today.

The NSO reported yesterday that GDP dropped by 1.2% in the last three months of last year.

Dr Gulia said those figures, and other figures issued since, notably on unemployment, flew in the face of government claims that the economy was weathering the international economic crisis.

He observed that exports in the last quarter of 2008 collapsed by a record 25% and were down 14% for the full year. Investment was down by 37% (20% for the full year) and private consumption grew by only 1.6%. It was worrying that exports of pharmaceuticals dropped for the fourth month in a row.

The results, Dr Gulia said, confirmed that Malta was losing export competitiveness, in the same way as it was losing competitiveness in tourism.He observed that while the unemployed increased by 200 in December, there was a further increase of 500 in January - and this before the loss of jobs at ST.

It was important for the governemnt to restore Malta's competitveness, with a good start being a reduction in the utility tariffs, the Labour MP said.