Concerns about rising prices have shot up over the past six months, according to a survey commissioned by Times of Malta.
A quarter of respondents (25.2%) cited the cost of living as one of the country’s biggest issues, up from just 6.3% in August.
Fieldwork for the latest survey was carried out between February 14 and February 24 by market research firm Esprimi.
In the latest survey, price concerns were just marginally behind worries about healthcare and COVID-19, with health cited as one of the main problems the country is facing by 27.2% of people.
Corruption concerns
Corruption was mentioned as the third biggest issue in the country by 20.8% of respondents.
Concerns about corruption vary widely across party lines.
Half the people who claimed they would vote for the PN in the next election cited corruption as one of the country’s problems.
In contrast, corruption was only flagged as an issue by 7.3% of people who say they intend to vote Labour.
The government has, in recent weeks and months, moved to ease the public’s concerns about rising prices through a mix of handouts and freezes on energy and fuel bills.
The survey results matching February 2022 and August 2021.Youths worry most about prices
Breaking the survey results down by age groups shows price rises are of greatest concern to youths.
A total of 42.5% of youths aged between 16 and 24 mentioned prices as being one of the country’s main issues.
The extent to which the cost of living is cited as a national issue gradually tapers off with age. Just under a quarter (24%) in the 25-34 age bracket found it to be an issue, followed by 28.3% of 35-44-year-olds, 21.2% of people in the 45-54 bracket, 19.4% of 55-64-year-olds and 19.1% of pensioners.
The environment features relatively low on people’s radar as an issue of national concern.
Few worry about greylisting
Only 12.3% of people raised it as being one of the country’s problems, below traffic, parking and public transport at 13.3%.
Malta’s greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering body, was only cited as a problem by 6.5% of people.
The economy was cited as a problem by 5.3% of people and the government as a whole by just 1.3%.
Concerns about Malta’s reputation abroad were just a blip at 0.8%.