A PN grocery shopping exercise found that prices for basic goods have increased by 40 per cent in the last five years.

“A shopping trolley that cost €65 in 2020 now costs €90,” cost of living shadow minister Ivan Castillo said, sitting behind a trolley with items like Wudy sausages, frozen chips, Kellogg's cornflakes, and Fabuloso floor cleaner.

The trolley also had pasta, eggs, milk, corned beef, couscous, packet soup, tea, and tomato pulp.

In their exercise, the Nationalist Party purchased the same items that the General Workers’ Union-owned newspaper L-Orizzont had bought in the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Back in April 2020, L-Orizzont concluded that prices had increased by 8 per cent in the initial economic fallout of the pandemic. 

But the items bought recently cost some €25 more than the L-Orizzont shopping trolley.

“This calculation was based on discounted prices and special offers. Had the items been purchased at their recommended retail prices, the increase would have been 45.8 per cent,” Castillo said.

He added that the government was ignoring the cost of living reality and had voted down the PN’s proposals to fight against rising costs.

During a parliamentary sitting last week, PL opposed a PN motion that called on the government to implement its cost of living proposals.

These include not taxing COLA, granting tax credits for employers to prevent them from further increasing prices to offset the rising cost of living, and establishing a national fund to support import or export businesses.

The PN also wants to “establish a new economic model with emerging sectors that create high-quality jobs with better wages for workers”.

In parliament, Labour MPs argued that the government’s policies have curbed inflation and put more money in people’s pockets.

Subsidising energy prices, giving an income tax cut, increasing the statutory minimum wage, raising pensions, and introducing a carer’s grant for those who look after their relatives were among the policies that Prime Minister Robert Abela listed.

Beside Castillo, social security shadow minister Albert Buttigieg and finance shadow minister Graham Bencini also spoke on Friday.

Buttigieg quoted studies that show inequality in Malta is rising.

Findings of the Central Bank report show that the wealthiest 10 per cent of the population controls around 45 per cent of the country’s wealth.

That means many Maltese families are earning less than what the country’s overall economic growth suggests, Buttigieg said.

That’s why a growing GDP does not necessarily mean that people are better off, he said.

Bencini said more people were at risk of poverty now - 105,000 people - than when the PN was in power.