economy
Maltese businesses are embracing Internet of Things, survey suggests
In the last decade, the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved from an emerging technology to one of the world’s most in-demand tech verticals. IoT as a technology has been maturing over the past few years and seems poised for continued growth in Malta.
Encouraging German SMEs to invest in Malta
SMEs from Germany are repeatedly venturing into internationalisation – for example, by buying or selling goods abroad, opening foreign branches or setting up operations in other countries. There are numerous factors for these measures, first and...
Federal Reserve meeting minutes reflect intensifying inflation debate
US Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers expressed greater concern about the spike in US inflation at their meeting earlier this month and raised the possibility of ending bond purchases sooner than they planned if high prices persisted. Most officials at...
Changing the financial system − Lawrence Zammit
The COMECE (Catholic Church in the European Union) Secretariat recently published a paper entitled ‘A Financial System Serving the Common Good in Times of Systemic Change’. The need to reform the international financial system has been on the agenda...
Unemployment in sharp drop in October
Unemployment in October dropped by 1,860 from the same month in 2020 to reach 1,254, the National Statistics Office said on Monday. Unemployment decreased across all age groups for both men and women. The number of persons with a disability who were...
Eurozone inflation up to 4.1% in October
Eurozone inflation rose to 4.1 per cent in October from 3.4 per cent in September, broadly in line with the estimate published on October 29. This is the highest rate since July 2008. Excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, core inflation advanced...
Is housing a social service? − Lawrence Zammit
Last week, I came across this statement made by a Spaniard and reported in a section of the UK press. “If health and education are a social service in Spain, why not housing?”. This same statement can be made about Malta as well. Why should housing not...
Energy cost fuels global inflation rise to multi-year highs
The US Labour Department reported that US consumer prices increased by more than expected during October, lifting the annual rate of price growth to its highest level in over 30 years. The consumer price index jumped by 0.9 per cent in October, well...
The world of start-ups has become a Wild West
The modern start-up culture has turned into a harmful fashion. Alarmingly, it produces up to 80 per cent of doomed cases. Over two-thirds of the entrepreneurs failing at their first business get largely broke, traumatised and, in many countries, even...
China's 'Single's Day' shopping fest subdued by tech crackdown
China on Thursday held a subdued version of its annual "Single's Day" shopping spree, shorn of the usual boasting on sales volume as the country's chastened e-commerce sector kept a lower profile amid a government crackdown on platforms such as those...
Fed to begin scaling back asset purchases
In a widely expected move, the US Federal Reserve announced last Wednesday that it will start rolling back its unprecedented COVID-19 stimulus programme later this month. This marks the Fed’s first major pull-back since the programme was launched in...