Nine out of every 10 Maltese paying in euros - study

Ninety per cent of the Maltese are paying only in euros, a European Commission consumer survey has found.

The National Euro Changeover Committee's executive director, Alan Camilleri, said yesterday that 86 per cent of the Maltese reported having only or mostly euro notes in their wallets by the end of business on Wednesday while 90 per cent said they had only or mostly euro coins. Shops were not giving any change in Maltese lira, he added.

He said the results of the EC survey tallied with those of the daily NECC survey among 495 shop owners all over the Maltese islands.

In Wednesday's survey, 2.3 per cent of respondents said only very few Maltese were paying in euros and when asked if they were having enough cash to give change in euros only one per cent replied in the negative.

Mr Camilleri said money withdrawn or exchanged since the introduction of the euro amounted to €185 million. The number of withdrawals and cash exchanges at bank counters on Wednesday amounted to 22,000. ATM transactions peaked at 42,900 last Saturday. They amounted to 28,408 last Wednesday.

He said that 30 businesses reported to have rounded up prices had already brought them down again and some even accepted to pay the difference to those clients they had overcharged.

Mr Camilleri said the NECC had issued a first warning to 36 establishments.

Calls on euro helpline 154 dropped from an average of 700 a day in the first days of the changeover to 426 on Wednesday. Some callers wanted reassurance, others called to complain and some just wanted to know where their euro centre was situated.