Households across Malta and Gozo will soon be asked to report their daily spending to the National Statistics Office as part of a Household Budgetary Survey.
The results will lead to a revision of the Retail Price Index, a metric that directly impacts how COLA (a yearly salary adjustment to account for inflation) is calculated.
On Thursday, the man leading the survey, Silvan Zammit, said 7,000 households will soon receive a letter informing them that they have been selected as participants.
Participation is mandatory, but those taking part will get €50 as a token of appreciation.
After completing a questionnaire that includes questions on income and irregular expenses, such as buying a new car, participants will need to keep a diary of their spending for two weeks.
Those participating will have to record how much they spent on: groceries, cigarettes and alcohol, clothing, housing and utilities, furnishing and home maintenance, health, transport, communication, recreation and culture, education, and restaurants and hotel stays.
The Household Budget Survey has been carried out since the early 1970s around once every five years.
The last one, however, was nine years ago, in 2015.
“We felt the need to publish the census first before embarking on the survey. Malta’s demographics have changed so much that we needed a clearer picture of the country’s fabric before looking at household expenses,” Zammit, who is the NSO’s director of data resources, IT, and methodology, said.
The 2015 survey found that Maltese households spent the largest chunk of their income on food and non-alcoholic beverages. Spending on alcohol and tobacco, and education were the lowest.
“I suspect that we will see the percentage of income spent on food to be lower this year and other areas to increase,” Zammit said.
The 2015 survey also found that the Maltese spent significantly less on housing and utilities than the EU average. Loan repayments were considered an investment, not an expense, and so were not calculated.
The NSO will begin surveying all of Malta and Gozo in batches of 250 from November and will continue doing so for a year. But the retail price index will not be updated till December 2026.
Zammit said that any data gathered will be kept confidential.
Besides updating the RPI, the household budget survey will be used in scientific research and other measures such as Caritas’s work on poverty, Zammit said.