Reference is being made to several articles that tackled the issue of poverty and its perceptions in Malta.

The analysis undertaken on Malta's situation is unfair to the survey in question (Eurobarometer 289). It was stated that 61 per cent of Maltese struggled to make ends meet. This is a far cry from the results themselves. Table 5a on page 70 of the report shows that 32 per cent are keeping up but it is a constant struggle and 29 per cent are keeping up but struggle to do so from time to time. These responses cannot be aggregated and labelled as struggling to make ends meet.

On the other hand, the survey shows that 29 per cent of the respondents are coping without any difficulties.

It is worrying to see such extrapolation of data from the original report which was used to inflate such a sensitive issue. When dealing with figures and surveys care must be taken to interpret and extrapolate data properly and faithfully to the truth. Failure to do so will lead to both a misinterpretation and exacerbation of the issues. This was brilliantly tackled by sociologist Marc Anthony Falzon in his opinion piece that appeared on The Sunday Times on June 13 and this misinterpretation of data proves him right even more.