I did not mention Malta as being in a recession [yet]. I meant that recession elsewhere might affect Malta in some ways.

oh..and I also meant to write ‘rip people off’ and not ‘rip off people’. Sometimes my keyboard does not synchronize with my thoughts.

Let’s all hope for a better 2009.

I did not say I go to the UK to shop, so I don’t really follow your reasoning. I said I shop online and believe me, a lot of people have access to internet and do the same. Your arguments just prove my point. GRTU always point fingers at everyone except themselves.

No one here is denying that there is a recession and that in some ways it will affect Malta and no-one likes to pay for higher bills. What we are saying is that Maltese consumers are getting more savvy and spending more wisely and have finally started to speak out when ripped off, be it through higher prices or bad service and the Maltese retailer and service provider needs to wake up and realise this.

Interesting to note that now petrol prices are down, pump owners complain and some even refused to sell fuel at cheaper rates on Monday. Did any of them ever complain when prices went up, or refused to serve us the higher priced fuel?

There is a limit to how one can rip off people and keep getting away with it.

[Daphne – Just a point, Stephanie: the Maltese economy is not in recession (yet). Recession is an economic definition, not an opinion. You have to reckon with the numbers.]

[Daphne – Mario, I’m not denying that shops are having a disastrous Christmas. I can see they’re empty. Where we differ is as to the reasons why, and on whether shouting about it makes matters worse rather than helps.]

Just because you go to the UK to do your shopping and perhaps have a few friends that do the same is not scientific evidence that its what everyone is doing. GRTU’s claims that the economy is not doing well and that sales are down are based on a survey of 250 businesses from all sectors. With your reasoning we should see a sharp increase in people going to the UK. To my knowledge there is no such evidence. Furthermore you have to rule out the current very low value of the sterling. Many Maltese shops import their stocks from the UK so we should see a reduction in their prices. Thing is, the stocks they have for the Christmas period where ordered at pre-sterling crash prices. Also its not a question of ‘if people have money’ but the question is ‘Are they making money ?’ Most people tend to spend only if they are earning and prefer to leave what they have saved.

Finally I don’t know why you people cannot except the results of a survey with a sample of 250 which is a sizable one even if it was for all Malta let alone the business community. In 2006 when the survey said that business was doing well it was the Labour side that was bringing the same arguments and not accepting the survey results.

Again, did you all notice HSBC forking out 100 million euros to help businesses ? The UK reducing VAT ? All the economists in Malta preaching doom and gloom? Factories on a four day week? Is it only GRTU seeing there is a problem?

[Daphne – Nobody’s questioning the results of the survey. We can see that shops are empty. But I’m questioning the motivation behind all the publicity the GRTU is giving to the results of the survey. They don’t seem to realise that there’s one hell of a difference between people failing to spend because they’ve lost their job and don’t have money and people failing to spend because they’re afraid, are being encouraged to be afraid (by the GRTU among others) and keeping their money in the bank instead.]

It said that the number of people registering for employment under Part One of the unemployment register at the end of November was 5,900 compared to 5,634 in October and 5,882 in November 2007.

With regard to persons registering for work in the 12 months to November 2008, the number of men increased by 150, whereas the number of women decreased by 173. Between November 2007 and November 2008, persons who had been registering for work for 53 weeks and over decreased by 197.

Among men, occupations related to elementary duties and trades were the most common, whereas women tended to seek jobs which were clerical or service-oriented.

Daphne…..what did you say about unemployment? Can you repeat that please? I didn’t hear you!

[Daphne – Mario, by sending in these numbers you just prove the point that unemployment is not going up, unless your friends at the GRTU think that having EIGHT more unemployed persons in November this year than we had in November last year is the reason their shops are empty this Christmas.]

The point is that the GRTU is trying to get the govt to put some business friendly measures in place. On the other hand, yes, it is time some shops closed down, prices have to go down – in short – more value needs to be added! This is a natural way of the market righting itself. Unfortunately politics and socalist policies get in the way of the market.

Try getting your head out of the sand and realise that most news is ‘black’, we are fortunate enough to be able to access news from anywhere today, in real time. People are informed of what is going on in this country and also in the rest of the world. We all know that there will be repercussions to the problems overseas, so why keep blaming the GRTU – this seems very similar to a political scapegoat!

The hard cold fact is that if the NP was more careful in handling finances we would be in a better position to cushion this period. Now, don’t go blah blahing about not having a power station etc, because if the NP was running a commerical organisation the whole of them would have been kicked out long ago!

The GRTU are just trying their best to protect their members interest, this is the whole concept of a union or association. For sure, some things have to change drastically, shops will close, prices will (should) go down as the economy realigns itself, however, there are tools which the governmnet can still use.

[Daphne – Did you work on those exercises called ‘comprehension’ at school? Or had they stopped doing it by the time you entered the education system? I didn’t say that the GRTU is creating the recession. This might come as a surprise to you, but I do know the causes of recession in theory and practice, and also the history of the major recessions of the 20th century. I am saying something quite different: that when people have stopped spending, those who are selling should refrain from any measure that discourages spending even further, even if this means keeping a zip on it and not putting out any more negative messages. There are enough people damaging GRTU businesses with negative messages; the GRTU doesn’t have to jump on the bandwagon. Of course, if there were mass unemployment, and lay-offs in the news every day, it would be a different matter, but as I keep repeating, to no avail, unemployment is actually down, not up. In other words, there are more people in work this year than there were last year. So you cannot make a straight comparison with Britain or North America. If you want to carry on frightening sales away, go right ahead – only rest assured that the reason people are not spending is not because they have lost their job, but because they’re hoarding the money instead. This means that the money is there, so what you should be doing is talking people into spending it. This isn’t rocket science; it’s just clear thinking. And has it occurred to any GRTU shopkeeper that perhaps people resent spending money on full-price items when they know there will be heavy discounts on Boxing Day, and when they know that London shops are discounting everything already?]