Malta saw the second highest increase in retail trade in the EU in December, the month characterised by Christmas shopping.
Eurostat figures issued today show that retail trade in Malta was up 2%, second only to the UK, here is was up by 2.6% from the previous month.
Portugal was down 5.6%. Spain - 3.6% and Germany - 2.5%
When compared to December 2012, Malta was up 1.4%. Better figures were achieved by Bulgaria. Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg (the best performer with an increase of 9.4%) Hungary, Poland Romania and the UK.