The Nationalist Party on Friday slammed the government for remaining tight-lipped in the face of growing economic pressures as a rise in the cost of living threatens to hit people’s pockets. 

Addressing a press conference, Opposition MP Ivan Bartolo and election candidate Ivan Castillo both weighed in on recent news reports that warn of rising prices.  

“It is unacceptable that, in the face of this, the government has not said anything. The reality people are dealing with in their homes is not the same as the rosy picture the government is painting,” Bartolo said. 

Business to hike prices as inflation spikes

On Thursday, a survey commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce found that rising costs will lead 42% of businesses to increase their prices in the next 12 months.

This was followed by an announcement, just moments before Friday morning’s PN press conference, that inflation has gone up. 

The National Statistics Office said in a statement that the annual rate of inflation as measures by the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) in September was 0.7%, up from 0.4% in August.

Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time and is generally used to give a picture of the cost of living in a country. 

'Impact hardest at bottom of the ladder'

Bartolo said the fact that nearly half of businesses plan to raise their prices will hit families’ pockets, especially those at the bottom of the economic ladder. 

The government, he said, has so far not said a word about this, and is instead caught up in a frenzy of propaganda.  

“The reality is that we have nearly 300 people without a roof over the heads, but you won’t hear the government say anything about that,” Bartolo said.  

On his part, Castillo said the government had also not given a clear indication of what direction it plans on taking the economy. 

While the previous legislature had seen the jobs market flooded with thousands of foreign workers, a pandemic had hit and it was unclear what was to happen next.  

“First we had the policy that brought these workers here, with all the impact that had on local workers. And now, many of these workers are leaving and we do not know what the plan is,” Castillo said, adding that the PN had warned this would be the case.  

Weighing in on the finance ninister’s recent announcement that he would rework the cost of living adjustment mechanism, Castillo said he expected the full details of this to be announced in Monday night’s budget speech.  

The so-called COLA mechanism raises wages, in both the public and private sector, as well as pensions, based on the rate of inflation recorded the previous year. 

The government is proposing that pensioners and other vulnerable groups should soon benefit from more favourable increases.